


Eclipsed

by IsleofCrete



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon 2012)
Genre: Alter Egos, Alternate Dimensions, Alternate Universe, Different languages, Dimensions, Fighting, Gen, Infinity Stones, Magic, Major Original Character(s), Marvel Universe, Music, New York City, Not Avengers Assemble Season 4 Compliant, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Compliant, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, POV Original Character, SHIELD, SHIELD Academy, Shenanigans, Some much needed beach therapy, The Avengers - Freeform, Training, dad! tony, infinity stones but not, lightsaber but not, peter and shuri are bffs, the Force but not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2019-06-17 19:03:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 91,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15467964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsleofCrete/pseuds/IsleofCrete
Summary: Her world fell apart as she fell into a strange new place. One that isn't home. Thoughts rushed through her head as the ground hurtled toward her. Who was she? Where was she? How was she even alive? She had no idea of what was in store for her.





	1. Awakening and Shattering

**Author's Note:**

> This is the story about my original character. I would recommend watching both Ultimate Spider-Man as well as Avengers Assemble, as many events play a large part into this canon. It would also help to be up to date with the MCU. But, that being said, this story takes place in its own universe that just happens to have many events from both the MCU and the TV shows being canon. If I need to, I can post a full canon list of what is and isn't canon, but most of it can be figured out by reading. So unless I directly state that something is or isn't canon, I probably won't reference it. I hope that wasn't too confusing, but it will make more sense once you read it. Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious eclipse begins and Tony senses danger. Little does he know, this eclipse is more than a matter of science and it brings more questions along with it then anyone would care to answer.

_Her eyes snapped open as she stared out at the scenery around her. Not much, being as she was in a cave, surrounded by the crystal prison of her own making. Why, how, was she even awake? She could feel the world around her shift, not the planet, but the fabric of the dimensions themselves, as a huge portal ripped open underneath her. Her crystal shattered and she fell into the swirling darkness below her. . ._

* * *

 Alarms began going off everywhere. Tony had no idea why. When he asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. what it was, she was slow to respond, which was very unlike her.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., what is happening?”

“Well, Boss, it appears we have a situation unfolding.” While her voice remained steady, Tony seemed to sense a small quiver in her voice. Something had to be seriously wrong to upset F.R.I.D.A.Y.

“What kind of situation?” Tony questioned, desperately needing to know what was happening.

“It seems that an eclipse has just started. And energy readings of a kind I cannot identify are growing exponentially.”

“Please tell me I heard you wrong,” Tony begged.

“I am unable to do that, Boss. I recommend acting soon, the eclipse will total in less than an hour.”

“Well, if that’s the case, I better suit up. F.R.I.D.A.Y., I want you to alert everyone in the tower who can be helpful in defending the Earth to meet in Central Park in half an hour. Also, call everyone who is able to get here in that amount of time with powers and abilities and such to be there as well. You have the list.” Tony groaned and pushed himself up from his chair. His mind was already racing as to who it could be. If F.R.I.D.A.Y. couldn't identify the energy signatures, then that was truly bad news. It meant that the threat they faced was new. “F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Yes, Boss,”

“Tell everyone to be prepared for the worst.”

* * *

 Forty-five minutes and many curse words later, Tony had everyone he could muster in a group in Central Park. Given how little notice everyone received, they all made it. The moon, or what everyone was assuming was the moon, had started to cover the sun. Tony guessed that they had about ten minutes before it was total. F.R.I.D.A.Y. couldn’t tell if the darkness coming from the moon eclipsing or not, her signals to the satellites in space had shut down with the strange energy spikes.

The only good thing about the situation was that everyone who wasn’t someone Tony had called had run from the area the moment the sky started to darken. He had put Jane Foster, one of the scientists living at the tower, whose specialty was astrophysics, on the case of finding out what was happening the moment he had the news.  

“Tony, you need to tell us what is happening here. We can’t do anything if we don’t know what’s happening.” That was Natasha, the Black Widow. She gestured to the rest of the group gathered around them, which was surprisingly large. The group included Cap (Steve), Hawkeye (Clint), Thor, Hulk, Natasha, and Falcon (Sam) as Avengers.

Steve had insisted that they should bring Barnes, who was still recovering from his time as the Winter Soldier, to help. His skills _were_ useful, after all. Loki, however, was another matter. Yes, he had been under mind control when he had invaded New York, and yes, he had been slowly earning everyone’s trust these past few months, but Tony still didn’t like it. But, Thor had brought him anyways.

The rest of the group was much more of a mixed bag. They numbered Doctor Strange and Iron Fist, who both specialized in the mystic arts. Black Panther had been stateside when the call had done out, so he was also there, along with Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Spider-Man had brought his team of young heroes from S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, who included Powerman, White Tiger, and Nova. Iron Fist was also part of that team. Numerous S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, as well as Agent Coulson, were also on hand as backup. Tony despised the fact that he’d had to call Fury, but he knew it couldn’t be helped. Fury had also informed Tony that he had other teams of young heroes back at the Academy as additional reinforcements should the need arise.

Other than those in front of him, no one else was close enough to answer the call. Tony was sure, however, that if more help would be needed, others would come.

“Alright gang, here’s what we’re dealing with.” While Tony didn’t take off his faceplate, he did turn up the speakers in his suit so everyone could hear him. “We’ve got a strange eclipse happening and have no idea what’s causing it. The reason we don’t know that is because energy levels of an unknown kind that have been dramatically rising since an hour ago.”

“Um, Mr. Stark?” Spider-Man raised his hand. “The sky is starting to shimmer. Is that bad?”

“Kid, I don’t know. Is your spider sense going off?” Tony had learned to trust the spider sense.

“Sort of, but it’s all funny-like. It’s all over the place.”

“Well, good thing I just finished filling you all in. Okay, I want everyone who can fly up in the sky around us. It looks as if trouble is coming from up above.” Everyone nodded and Tony took off. 

Suddenly, there was a sound. It sounded like thunder mixed with something shattering. The sound seemed to be high and low pitched at the same time. None of Tony’s speakers could block it out. It seemed to be sounding in his head, and he wasn’t completely sure that it wasn’t. The sound marked accompanied a huge crack, or rather, a hole that opened in the center of the eclipse just as it totaled. And then, someone fell out of the hole.

That someone fell at an alarming rate, the long black braid on their head flapping above them. That someone turned out to be female from the scream that came from her. Tony hadn’t even had time to move to forward to catch her when she smacked straight into him. Then, she began to flicker, whatever the hell that meant. What puzzled Tony even more was the fact that an exact copy of her appeared to be flickering near the portal she fell through.

As suddenly as the hole had opened, it closed right up and the eclipse disappeared completely, making Tony believe that the moon hadn’t been its cause. The woman, or teenager, really, because she looked no older than seventeen, stopped flickering and pushed herself off of Tony to fall toward the ground.

Everyone backed away from the area where she was falling to and then formed a circle around the spot. Tony immediately dove after her, but she reached the ground before he could get her. But it appeared that she needed no help because she seemed to slow herself down so she landed on her feet.

“Who are you?” Doctor Strange asked. As ‘protector of Earth from magical shenanigans’, as Tony called it, Tony let it slide. Despite the fact that he wanted to address this being who had just fallen into New York City.

A whole load of gibberish spilled from her mouth. F.R.I.D.A.Y., despite being fluent in all languages she had ever encountered, had no idea what this woman was saying, and thus she could not pass on what was being said to Tony.

“What was that now? Didn’t catch that. Web-head, was she speaking nerd?” Nova joked, flying down to elbow Spider-Man.

“Honestly, we can’t take you anywhere. We are dealing with an unknown threat from who knows where and you are making fun of Spidey.” White Tiger accused. The argument would have continued on if Coulson hadn’t shot a piercing glare at them. Tony agreed with her.

The same sounds came from the woman in the middle as everyone stared back at her. The whole group adjusted their weapons, getting ready to fight.

“Coulson,” Tony said over their comms. “Tell your agents to use tranquilizing darts. We have no idea what bullets will do, and besides, it would look bad to everyone else if we did the ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ thing.” Coulson nodded and passed the word on to his men. Tony got his repulsors ready.

“Does anyone have any idea what she just said?” Tony glanced over at both Asgardians, whose Allspeak should’ve allowed them to understand every tongue spoken, looked as confused as everyone else.

Then the woman started to yell at them. Tony thought he was going crazy because he swore that the woman’s braid was changing from black to red. Only everyone else was shocked by it too.

“Clint, turn down your hearing aids, this may take a while,” Natasha said. Clint nodded and did so. However, he never took his eyes off of their target. Everyone started to back away when the woman’s red hair began to spark.

“Be at peace, friend, we aren’t going to hurt you.” Iron Fist, arguably the most zen out of the whole group, made a calming gesture. That seemed to help because her hair stopped sparking at least. Then she stopped shouting. Tony wondered if the two mystics were working their magic on calming her down.

When quiet was well and fully present, the woman froze as if she was thinking. Tony had his fair share of unidentifiable sounds over the past few minutes, but this one he was sure he could place. It was a heartbeat. Very loud and growing faster by the second. Tony knew for a fact that it wasn’t his. It was _hers_. At that moment everyone trained their weapons or whatnot at her if only to make themselves feel better.

It happened in the drop of a pin. Just like that, and the woman’s braid was a brilliant white that hurt everyone’s eyes. Clint turned up the dimness on his sunglasses. Then light started coming out from her clenched fists, silver on the left, gold on the right. It reflected off of her twin blueish-purple stone bracelets on each wrist. She began to radiate an overall sense of fear. Everyone felt it.

And then, she began to change. Her eyes, which had been the same color as her bracelets turned dead black and she looked taller. She managed to let out a small gasp before she straightened up from her cowering position that she had adopted moments before.

In that moment, the fear was gone. It was replaced with the same deadly air around her that Natasha and quite a few of the others had. It was the one that said ‘don’t fuck with me, I’m fully capable of beating your ass if you look at me wrong’. This was _definitely_ not the same woman as before. She may have looked similar, but this was something completely different.

“FIRE,” Cap shouted. He launched his shield forward as everyone else let their powers fly. She stood there for a moment before she spun around quickly in a full 360° and shoved both of her hands out to either side of her. Tony barely had time to register that she had two stones embedded in the palms of her hands, one silver, and the other gold before he was knocked off his feet by a blast. While the blast wasn’t anything that anyone could see, it was like someone had forcibly shoved Tony off of his feet. No one was left standing except her.

“I have this.” Loki was the first to recover. He leaped toward her and used his magic to at least freeze her in her tracks.

“COULSON!” Tony yelled.

“On it. Tranquilizers, NOW!” All of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents raised their guns and began firing. Many missed their mark completely, but that wasn’t due to the agent’s poor aim. The woman still managed to throw off a good two rounds of darts before one finally hit her. It must’ve taken at least ten darts before she was well and truly out.

Coulson called in a helicopter to take the woman back to S.H.I.E.D. Academy, where she could be monitored. Loki went with them, insistent on keeping his binding magic on until she was completely secure.

* * *

 There was a difference between unconscious and merely contained. The sleeping woman had only stayed quiet for about two minutes before she started struggling again. Once she started moving, it was all Loki could do to keep her under wraps. Her eyes never opened, but she kept on fighting all the way back to the Academy.

Loki was not having it when he got off the helicopter to meet the other Avengers. “Stark, you had better find a way to keep her still, because this has been going on ever since we left. My magic is not limitless. It is not just her that I am fighting, her power keeps trying to break loose.” Tony could see that Loki was losing ground. He looked exhausted after just a few minutes of containing her power. And that was without him doing magic for most of the day, which usually contributed to his weariness.

As if to prove a point, the woman’s eyes shot open and she stared down at the now visible magic binding her. She yanked a hand free and grabbed at the empty air. Somehow, she knew that was where the string of magic was because she gave a hard tug on it that pulled Loki over. With his concentration lost, the magics lost their grip and she was free.

“Everyone, MOVE!” Coulson cried out as he got out of the way. No blast like the one before came, however. A savage grin played across her face. She pulled out a strange device attached to her belt and made the motion like she was going to do something with it when she shuttered and quickly replaced it. Black began to ripple across her braid again before she dropped like a stone, all white gone from her hair. Tony looked around to see the cause. He found none.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., I want energy readings on her. I want to know what just happened.”

“Boss, it appears that the energy readings I was observing earlier from her have become less active. It is more centralized around her, but it is not changing. It looks as if someone just shut off her brain.”

“Well, I’m not one to pass up an opportunity. Let’s get her inside.” Tony walked toward the door of the Academy. Fury stepped out to meet him.

“Stark, what are you doing? Are you bringing another of your ‘experiments’ into test? I don’t have time to deal with whatever problems you are going to cause.”

“Fury, I don’t have time to deal with your shit right now. I want her kept unconscious as much as possible. Use emotional suppressants if you have them, and I know you do. From what I’ve noticed, fear is a major issue for her. The calmer she can be kept the better. And then I want full medical scans done on everything. I’ll be back tomorrow when the tests are done to look over the results.” Fury looked as if he was about to pop a blood vessel.

“So you’re telling me, that we have an unknown threat on our hands, and you want me to handle it? You may be the leader of the Avengers, but this is now S.H.I.E.L.D. business. You better not be thinking of wanting to keep this in your Tower.”

 “No, that’s why I want her here. Hey, it’s better than having her escape in the middle of New York City!” And with that, Tony took off. He knew the rest of the team would catch up, but for now, he wanted to see what information he could learn.

“Boss, I have analyzed all the energy readings from our guest over the past hour and have been unable to determine a match. However, there is always the possibility that these energy readings could match some alien technology or a mystic artifact that I have not been able to study.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said to Tony. She pulled up a chart on the HUD in his armour to show him the energy levels. He grimaced. The only good news was that no other energy spikes had been triggered by their visitor’s arrival.

“Go ahead and pass on that info to Dr. Foster. That way she can know where not to look for any matches.” Tony replied.

“Of course, Boss.”

* * *

 Tony had been in his lab for hours when a kiss on the cheek brought him out of his thoughts. Between the thinking and the deafening rock music, Tony hadn’t heard anyone come up. It was Pepper, thankfully. If it had been anyone else, Tony would’ve reached his wit's end. All of his research so far had come up with nothing.

“What is it, Pep?” Tony asked.

“Just wanted to check in with you. I just met with Darcy, who’s been keeping tabs on Jane. She says that Jane doesn’t have anything either on this problem we have here.” Pepper replied. The benefit of F.R.I.D.A.Y. was that she could fill in everyone on what had happened in Central Park without Tony having to take time out of his schedule to do it. He went straight to the lab the moment his armour was off, not even stopping to check in with everyone.

“While it’s not good, I’m not really surprised. I haven’t exactly been successful either. I assume that everyone made it back alright? I didn’t get a raging Fury calling me, so everything must be under control at S.H.I.E.L.D. or someone would’ve made a fuss about it.” Tony sighed and got up from his chair where he had been working to look Pepper full in the face. She rolled her eyes.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., put everything on hold for now. No, Tony, don’t argue,” Pepper quickly said when Tony looked as if he was going to protest. “You need some time away from the lab, at least to clear your head. Who knows? Maybe the answer will pop into your mind when you aren’t focusing on it.”

“I just feel like I’m missing something. Something big. There has to be a connection here, somewhere. I’ve already called up the rest of the team who isn’t already in New York. One of them has to know something.” Pepper, though, was in no mood to indulge Tony in another fit of self-pity.

“And now is not the time for that. C’mon upstairs. You haven’t slept in days and you’re only wearing yourself out by being in here for hours on end every day. And don’t say this started because of what happened today. You were in the lab all the time before this.” Tony let himself be dragged into the elevator, fully accepting defeat. After all, he had nothing to fight back with that could possibly persuade Pepper.

And then the alarms went off. Again. Tony fought the urge to bang his head slowly and repeatedly against the elevator wall. Thankfully, when they got off the elevator, the alarms had slowed and were no longer as loud. They walked out into the common floor to find Bruce running toward them.

“Tony, we have a situation,” he said, slightly breathless because he had just run over.

“Oh we’re gonna have a situation IF I HEAR THAT FUCKING ALARM AGAIN!” Tony shouted, his patience finally gone.

“Well, at least time we know why the alarm went off,” Bruce said, only slightly phased by Tony’s shouting fit. “But you’re not going to like it.”

“Great, just great. Alright Bruce, what is it?”

“Well, you know the other three infinity stones?”

“The ones that Ultron depowered and are now sitting uselessly in the tower’s vault?” By now, Tony damn well knew what was happening and nothing about it was good.

“Those. They powered up again. All at once. But, don’t worry, they are all safely contained and can cause no harm. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was just set to turn on the alarms when a change happened with the infinity stones,” Bruce explained. He was nervous. He had every right to be, in Tony’s mind. Those stones were not to be messed with and it would not bode well if others knew that they were active again.

“I’m going to go check on them. Just to make sure that every protective measure is in place.” Tony said. He turned toward the elevator but was stopped, once again, by Pepper.

“Bruce is perfectly capable of checking on the infinity stones on his own. You know it, I know it. I would, however, go let everyone else know what happened so they are all up to speed.” Pepper began to push Tony to the living room door.

“Actually, Miss Potts, I can tell everyone. It’s no trouble.” Bruce piped up.

“Thank you, Bruce,” Pepper said. She gave him a small wink. “As for you,” she turned to face Tony again. “Bed. NOW. I don’t want to hear another thing about it.”

* * *

 When Tony arrived at the Academy the next day, he was glad to see that it hadn’t been destroyed overnight. That had definitely been something that he had been worried about. He was surprised, however, to walk into the lab where their visitor was being kept on a bed in the center to find another young woman performing tests over on a computer by their visitor’s bed. She looked up and grinned at Tony.

“Mr. Stark! It is a pleasure to meet you! I am Shuri, T’Challa’s sister. He asked me to come and look at your guest from yesterday.”

“Um, yeah. You too, kid.” Tony said. He glanced at her work and raised his eyebrow.

“Oh, I know it’s not that good. I only started working an hour ago. I had to be given the tour first, which took some time. But, you’re welcome to see what I’ve done so far.” Shuri pulled up a screen consisting of many charts and figures. Tony stopped reading when he got to the third chart.

“How were you able to determine the source of the eclipse? All of the satellites were out of commission thanks to the incoming energy waves.”

“Maybe your satellites, Mr. Stark. But Wakanda’s satellites were just fine. And they are set to observe all frequencies, which is how I learned that a majority of the energy is interdimensional. That eclipse was, in fact, another dimension crossing over ours, which caused the portal to open. We are lucky to have a student at the Academy from another dimension. While the energy signatures we have on file from when he got here are not the exact same, both he and our visitor all have one thing in common.”

“The Siege Perilous’s energy,” Peter said as he walked in the room. Tony was not at all surprised to find Peter here. Tony himself was here, of course. “But the Siege can’t open a portal anymore. After it was shattered and then put back together, it couldn’t open portals anymore. It’s like it lost its power source.”

“So, we have an interdimensional being here and we have no idea how she got here because the only way she could’ve gotten here is currently inactive,” Shuri said. She looked fascinated at the thought. She grinned at Peter. “How exciting! I can’t wait to see what she’s like when she’s recovered.”

“So, she isn’t completely stable?” Tony asked. “I haven’t had time to check the latest data collected.”

“Yes and no.” That was Peter. “I volunteered to keep watch on her last night just in case an outbreak occurred. We weren’t really sure if she was alive when she was brought in because we could barely find a heartbeat. That hasn’t changed at all, so we think it might be normal.”

“However,” Shuri interjected. “Brain activity has been spiking and dropping throughout the night. It never drops to a normal level either. But this hasn’t caused any changes in her power levels, which have been almost the exact same since she arrived at the Academy, from what I understand.” Tony nodded. The good thing was that nothing had gone wrong that night.

“Well, you two have done alright. I’m thinking that if we can wake her up, we should.” Tony said. All three of them walked over to the bedside display. “There should be a way to do it.”

“The first that we did when she got back was we put her on medication to keep her under until we were sure what to do with her. I have no idea if taking her off of it will help, but it can’t hurt.” Peter said. He showed Tony what he meant. He turned off the machine designed to keep her asleep and then backed up a little.

Nothing happened for a solid ten minutes. Long enough that both Tony and Shuri thought they could make better use of their time by continuing their research. Peter was the only one to notice when she opened her eyes. She looked around slowly and then fixed her gaze on Peter. He fidgeted and was about to call out to Tony when she grabbed his arm.

There was a bright gold flash and Peter felt as if part of him was being pulled out. She let go quickly and he coughed. Luckily, both Tony and Shuri had seen the flash and they had rushed right over.

“Kid, are you okay?” Tony asked. Peter shook his head.

“She grabbed my arm and then it felt as if part of me was being pulled out.” Peter sounded utterly terrified.

“Sorry.” Came a quiet voice from the bed. All three stared at their visitor.

“Since when can she speak English? All she was speaking earlier was gibberish that no one had ever heard of before.” Tony was shocked. If she had done what he had just thought she had, then they were all in for it.

“Since right now.” She replied, her voice growing stronger. She looked at Peter again. “I’m sorry I had to do that, I just didn’t understand you. My language is not the same as yours, so I took a small part of your knowledge so that I could know what was being said.”

“Can I ask a question?” Shuri asked. She still looked utterly stunned. “What’s your name? We can’t keep referring to you as our ‘visitor’.”

“Well,” She looked down and her expression changed. “I don’t remember.” Her voice was filled with confusion as well as a little sadness.

“I’ve got one, if you don’t mind, seeing as how you came here and all,” Peter spoke up, looking slightly better.

“What?”

“How about Eclipse?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was it? I've wanted to write this story for a while now and I'm glad I finally got around to it. Please leave comments and questions below. I'll try to answer them as best as I can in order to possibly clear some things up. The next two chapters should be up fairly soon, as I already have them written. But I don't plan on keeping a posting schedule. The chapters go up when they go up. I hope you all have liked reading this as much as I have loved writing it! See you at the next chapter!


	2. Perspective Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eclipse tells her side of the story of her arrival and its aftermath at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of this chapter is a retelling of the first chapter from Eclipse's perspective. But don't worry! It's not the same chapter, it gives lots of insight on Eclipse. The rest of this chapter explains what happens after. Hope you all enjoyed the last chapter and are ready for this one!
> 
> At the beginning of this chapter is my rendition of Eclipse so you can get a rough idea of what she looks like. If any of you would like to draw her, feel free to, just please send it so me and credit me!

Her eyes snapped open as she stared out at the scenery around her. Not much, being as she was in a cave, surrounded by the crystal prison of her own making. Why, how, was she even awake? She could feel the world around her shift, not the planet, but the fabric of the dimensions themselves, as a huge portal ripped open underneath her. Her crystal shattered and she fell into the swirling darkness below her.

She fell for what seemed like forever and no time at all. She was still clawing herself out of her own mind. She had retreated there after she had sealed herself up, never really expecting to come back out. Time had slipped away from her. She could hardly remember anything at all, which was not good. No memory of why she was trapped or why she knew deep down, that she shouldn’t be awake.

Her mind had been a quiet place and she’d hadn’t been aware of anything else around her. She was slowly fading before she had woken, she knew that. It had been both slow and fast at the same time. At first, she had been putting all of her power in to, something. She couldn’t remember what. All she could recall from before she was trapped was that she wasn’t supposed to let anyone wake her up or something extremely bad would happen.

And so here she was, with her only memories being that of her NOT supposed to be awake and the knowledge of her powers. It terrified her. With that fear, she felt cracks form in the mental wall she’d placed between her and that, other power. She mentally gave a shove back and hoped it would be enough.

Suddenly, she dropped out of the portal with a shriek and into open skies. Blue skies. Had the skies from her home been blue? She thought they had a slight lavender tint to them, but at this point, she couldn’t tell the difference between actual memories of her world and what she had simply created in her mind. And there were things _flying_ in the sky. A part of her told her that this was not normal. Who she could see numbered a man with what looked like wings for arms and a strange red and gold suit of armour.

It was that red and gold armour that she accidentally fell onto. She nearly knocked them both out of the sky. Whether it was pure instinct or not, she twisted and tried to teleport back to the portal. Apparently, her powers were not fully awake yet, because it did not work. Her mental hold on the Edge of Time was so loose that the could barely access it. She couldn’t manage to pull herself fully onto the Edge, but she did manage to reach through it to reach for the portal.

The business of being in two, three, really, places at once was disorienting. The moment that she felt she had a good enough grip on the Edge that she could pull herself through to the portal, it snapped closed. The eclipse, which was in truth her world crossing over top this one, was gone. She had no way to get home now.

Well, her first order of business was to get to the ground. It was no good trying to think while sitting on top of this flying metal armour. Was there a person inside? She couldn’t tell. She shoved herself off and started falling.

A strange thought entered her head. Why didn’t her powers immediately copy those abilities of the armour? It never mattered how long she was in contact with something, it always happened. That was concerning. If her powers weren’t fully working, which she knew they weren’t, based on her teleportation attempt, then she had little chance at defending herself. That also meant that she couldn’t use her main weapon.

Thank goodness she had some spatial control because otherwise, she would’ve made a very large splat on the ground below her. She used that control to slow her fall and to twist herself around so she landed on her feet.

There were more people on the ground. She discovered that when she landed and they circled around her. Those in the air also landed to join the circle. They numbered the man with metal wings, the red and gold armoured figure, and two others. One wore a winged helmet and battle armour that she was more familiar with. He had a hammer in his hand, of all things, which he seemingly used to fly. Since when did people fly with hammers? The other looked to be closer to her age. Or what she thought was her own age. She would deal with that problem later, there were more important things to deal with right now. The younger one was wearing almost completely black and had a gold helmet that looked as if they covered his eyes. He didn’t completely land. The blue glowing field around him kept him airborne.

One of their rank stepped forward and addressed her. A red cloak topped his shoulders and a strange necklace was around his neck. She could sense the aura they both had, which was both good and bad. Good, because she apparently was regaining more of her powers back because her awareness, especially for those things she couldn’t see, things like magic and energy, was returning. Bad, because she was now dealing with an unknown power that she had no idea how to protect herself against. A power that felt slightly threatening.

That man said something in a language she couldn’t begin to comprehend. It seemed to be posed as a question. She pondered what she could say. Just because she didn’t understand them didn’t mean they couldn’t understand her. A simple explanation seemed best.

“ _I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you. I’m not from around here, I don’t think. All I know is that I am most definitely not supposed to be here,_ ” she said. Her voice wasn’t really clear at first, probably because she hadn’t spoken for however long she was in the crystal. It made it so that her first words weren’t truly clear.

Once she was done, the blue glowing one and then a white-clad one next to him spoke. They were making no effort to try and communicate in a way that both could understand. That made her slightly mad. Here she was, trying to be non-threatening and to communicate sensibly, and they were just ignoring her! And then a thought came to her head. What if these people were the ones that had broken her out? That thought enraged her even more.

Her anger bled red into the black braid that reached down to the bottom of her waist. The color changing hair was a side effect of her copying and absorbing power. It took her emotions and displayed them for the world to see on her hair. It also meant that her body was more adapted to the temperature around her. She took in both the hot and cold around her to change her internal temperature. She knew that if placed in a cold condition, it would not bode well for her.

That thought distracted her for a moment, but not long enough to let her anger cool. Before she could process it, she was shouting at them.

“ _Why have you brought me here?! Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? I was keeping all of you alive, idiots! Did no one ever tell you what I was doing? How I was keeping our world together after you destroyed so much of its life force?! WHY AM I HERE!_ ” Feelings had flashed into her mind of her world literally ripping itself up and memories of her using both of her powers to keep everything from falling apart. She needed all of her focus and strength to do it, so she had put herself into a crystal to better amplify her power and to ensure that she could do it indefinitely.

One, who was in green and yellow, was standing near the blue glowing one extended his hand and spoke. A very calming aura emanated from him, which helped bank her anger slightly. It was fading on its own, but mostly because she wasn’t focusing on the world around her.

She glanced down at her hands. The stones were still there. Gold on the right for her power emulation and stealing, and silver on the left for her spatial control. However, there now were two strange bracelets on each wrist. They were the same light blue-purple as her crystal prison. They were also the same color as her eyes, she remembered. They seemed important. Power seeped from them, but it was a power she couldn’t grasp. She mentally nudged at it to see what it was when her mind plunged down into the well of the bracelet's power.

Down and down she fell. It took her a moment to realize that what she was sensing was time. All the time she had lost track of while she was trapped. Her mind was clearing up and she began to remember all of the years in her own head. She had come in and out of consciousness, she remembered. Those flickers in the darkness grew and until her inner eyes were blinded. Those years had all clicked into place. It was longer than she thought possible.

How could she have been trapped for a THOUSAND YEARS? She kept telling herself that it wasn’t possible, that somehow her mental clock had been wrong. Deep down, she knew she wasn’t. The thought terrified her. Her fear shattered the wall between her mind and that other power that lived within her.

She felt her heart hammering in her ears. So loud that it drowned out everything else. She was nearly positive that it wasn’t just in her head, that her heartbeat was somehow being magnified for the world to hear. Black and white, both so absolute, swamped her mind and sight. She managed to let out a small gasp, as a warning to those around her, before she was dragged down and locked away in the depths of her own mind.

* * *

 Enigma straightened. It had been so long since that pitiful girl had broken and she was let out. What was that girl’s name? That girl had forgotten, and while memories usually didn’t carry over when she took over, she too had been trapped all that time. She did, however, remain aware and had held on to her name, many of her goals and had been able to keep track of time. It was only a matter of time before she got complete control of this girl’s powers once they were fully restored and she could really begin, but for now, she had the matter of those around her to deal with.

She smiled inwardly. What power she had, or really was, would be more than enough to deal with everyone around her. One of their rank shouted a command she didn’t understand before throwing a shield of all things at her. The others began to follow suit with their own attacks. She spun completely around her, the trademark white braid that marked the other one’s fear whipping around. She shoved her hands out, calling on that spatial control to knock everyone off of their feet.

What she hadn’t accounted for was the power and abilities that those around her would have. One with black hair and interesting dark green and gold armour was the first to get to his feet. He said something and then she felt his magic surge. She knew the moment he began to use it that it was extremely powerful.

She cursed herself for not noticing the aura that he had and targeting him and others like him from the beginning. There was no help for it now though. She was frozen in place, at least for the moment. Her powers, or what she had of them, were rendered useless. At full strength, this would’ve been less of a challenge, but the magic seemed to suppress her abilities.

One of the least flashy men in the circle gave an order and many of those around him started firing darts of some kind out of strange contraptions. She managed to push many of them out of the way so she didn’t get hit by all of them, but her being bound and not having all of her powers working did cause some to hit her. Ten shots in numerous places later, she felt her eyes shut against her will and her body collapse.

* * *

 While she couldn’t see it, Enigma felt herself being picked up and carried into a small area, from what she could sense. Try as she might, she could not manage to open her eyes or move her body into any significant fighting position. But even though her body was restrained, her power, and in essence, her very being was not. She kept trying to force her way past the magics, to get free, but to no avail. For now. She could feel all the strength the man was putting into the spell, and she could feel that strength running out from his aura. He was strong in power, extremely so, but having never faced her and what she could do, he was outmatched.

She was unloaded from that small space and led into an open area. The red and gold armoured one landed next to the man keeping her captive with magic. Finally, some of the effects of whatever had hit her wore off and she snapped her eyes open to gaze around her. She was no longer in the green area where she had first landed, she was now on an island dominated by a building. A glance down told her that those invisible magics were now visible, shining green and gold as they surrounded her.

No one else could sense it, but the magical ties of her bindings to the man who’d cast them were clearly there. She pulled a hand free, gave the tie a hard yank, and the man fell over. His concentration broken, the magics around her dropped, as she’d known they would. Everyone around her ran. Enigma grinned. She would give them something to be afraid of.

As she reached for the weapon and was about to ignite it, she felt an odd tug in her head. It felt as if the other one was fighting for control back, and winning to some degree. The weapon got replaced on her belt as the shudders increased. There was another yank in her mind and she lost control completely and the wall was slammed up again.

The girl, though, used all of her remaining strength to gain back control. She promptly blacked out and dropped to the ground. Enigma, while she herself as an entity couldn’t go unconscious, there was nothing else she could do for now. She drew herself inward in the back of the girl’s mind and began to wait, resigned. She would be free soon if these people were fool enough to keep scaring the girl.

* * *

 She sighed in relief. It was good to be back in control. Having used all of her power to break out of the trap in her mind, she pushed herself over the edge and fell away into the blackness of sleep. A true sleep, one that she desperately needed. It allowed her to assess the status of her powers. They were coming back, which was good because she had a feeling that she’d be needing them one way or another.

After a few hours, she attempted to wake up and found that she couldn’t. The thought ought to have terrified her, but she simply felt mild concern. While she had never been adept at sensing poisons and the like, she knew it had to be something like that because she could feel nothing around her keeping her still. Though she could sense people walking around her. It was good to know that she could still have that small bit of awareness.

She waited and waited, and then the heaviness started to lift from her eyes. The first thing she noticed when she opened them was a boy who looked about her age, which was seventeen. Granted, she was technically much older than him, but she was only counting the years in which she had actually aged.

He noticed her open her eyes. He was about to say something when she grabbed his arm with her right hand. Her power flooded into him, making a gold outline of him that only she could see. While she had the ability to hide the flash of gold from everyone’s eyes, she didn’t. Normally she would have stopped there, with just making a copy of his power, but she needed something else.

She searched until she found the core of his being and took a tiny thread from it. It was one that contained his knowledge of his language and how to speak it. Something she would need if she was going to communicate with these people. She knew it would cause him no harm because already she could see another thread of the same kind forming inside him. She quickly added that power to her own, making sure that it was firmly in place before she pulled her power out of him.

None of this took longer than a breath’s time. Once she had applied that speaking power to herself, something in her mind clicked. She immediately switched to thinking in that language. The knowledge of her previous language would always be there, just in case she had need of it. The other two in the room rushed over.

“Kid, are you okay?” The oldest of them asked. The boy next to her shook his head.

“She grabbed my arm and then it felt as if part of me was being pulled out.” He sounded utterly terrified.

“Sorry.” She said. This language was going to take getting used to. All three of them stared at her.

“Since when can she speak English? All she was speaking earlier was gibberish that no one had ever heard of before.” The oldest was shocked.

“Since right now.” She replied, her voice growing stronger. She looked at the boy again. “I’m sorry I had to do that, I just didn’t understand you. My language is not the same as yours, so I took a small part of your knowledge so that I could know what was being said.”

“Can I ask a question?” The only other girl asked. She still looked utterly stunned. “What’s your name? We can’t keep referring to you as our ‘visitor’.”

“Well,” She looked down and her expression changed. “I don’t remember.” Her voice filled with confusion as well as a little sadness. It was all she could really express right now with her emotions being dulled.

“I’ve got one, if you don’t mind, seeing as how you came here and all,” The boy spoke up, looking slightly better.

“What?” She asked, now curious. What better way to begin a new chapter in her life with a new name?

“How about Eclipse?” She thought it over. It sounded mysterious. She liked it. Whether or not everyone here had flashy names like that, she had no way of knowing, but she didn’t mind. It set her apart and made her original. She nodded.

“Knowing that I feel that I must make a proper introduction. Hello, my name is Eclipse. Who are you?”

“Hi, I’m Peter.” The boy said.

“Hello, I am Shuri,” The girl said she grinned at her. It was an infectious smile that made her smile back.

“I’m Tony. I’m the one you fell on when you came through the portal.” At that comment, both Peter and Shuri rolled their eyes. Eclipse did as well, Tony seemed to have that effect on people.

“Sorry, hope I didn’t hurt you.”

“No harm done.” He said. She didn’t quite believe him. People didn’t usually have glowing circles in their chests. “Though I wanted to ask about that stunt you pulled earlier. People aren’t supposed to flicker, have color changing hair, or be able to use the Force.”

“I can explain two of the three. First, I have a question. What’s the Force?” She was thoroughly confused, and worse, both Peter and Shuri appeared to get the joke and were snickering.

“How do you not understand Star Wars?” Tony seemed genuinely offended. “You must really not be from Earth if you don’t get that. Or have been out of touch for a while, like Steve.”

“Try both. It’s a story that I’m still trying to figure out myself, so don’t even bother asking right now. Though I hope it’s not too much to ask to have whatever’s weird that’s going on with my emotions to stop? I feel like I’m being stopped from feeling any emotion at all.” By now it was safe to assume that she had been drugged in some way.

“You promise you’re not gonna freak out if we do?” Peter asked. She gave him an exasperated look.

“I’d like to think that people nowadays are more trusting,”

“I guess it couldn’t hurt. We were just worried that you were going to have another episode of you trying to kill everybody after you got scared.” Peter looked around nervously.

“Well, we will never know if she is going to hurt us if we don’t let her be herself,” Shuri commented. She didn’t seem scared of the idea then, as Peter seemed to have been. Meaning that Peter, as well as Tony, had been there when she had arrived. Shuri walked over to a machine that Eclipse was hooked up to. She hadn’t bothered with it earlier because she was dealing with something slightly more important. Shuri flipped a switch and then pulled a patch off of Eclipse’s left arm.

The effect was almost immediate. She began to feel more alert and less weighed down. She turned and got off the bed. Thankfully, no one tried to stop her. Once up, she began to examine her condition. Her hair was coming out of its braid, which she groaned at. She hated to have to re-braid her hair. It took forever.

Otherwise, everything else seemed to be alright. She was extremely glad that they had left her clothes on. That would be weird. Her tight, black leggings remained tucked into her mid-calf brown boots. Her mostly form-fitting silvery gold shirt still reached to just above her thighs and her belt with its accompanying leg strap from which a small bag hung was still firmly in place. On her shirt, there were symbolances of armour in the form of blended in plating. The arm guards that reached up to her elbow with metal plates on the back were still in one piece. Her sleeves ended at the tops of her shoulders, while the back of her shirt formed a hood. Seeing that everything was in order, she began to walk around the room.

“So, about the flickering?” Tony proded.

“I think that was from my powers,” Eclipse held up her hands to show off the stones in her hands. They were called eternity crystals, she remembered. “The silver stone is for spatial control, teleportation and moving objects. I was trying to teleport earlier, but it didn’t work. That’s what the flickering was.”

“What does the other stone do?” Peter inquired.

“That one lets me, um, copy other people’s or, what’s the word, technological! That’s it, abilities. I can also take it, like I did with you, Peter.” Eclipse explained. She neglected to tell the extent of her powers to people she had just met. No need to have them know all of her secrets and end up hating and fearing her.

“Fascinating!” Shuri breathed. She didn’t remain starstruck for long, however. She went over to the computer and began typing. “That explains so much,” she muttered to herself.

“So, um, what do I do now?” Eclipse wondered.

“If you’re up for it, we can give you a tour of the Academy,” Peter offered.

“The Academy?” She echoed.

“Yeah! You’re at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy right now, on an island off the coast of New York.” He added as if that would make her understand even more. She stared at him with a look of confusion, the tips of her hair turning yellow to reflect her state of befuddlement.

“It’s alright, I’ll try to explain everything as we go. Shuri, do you want to come with us?” He asked.

“No thanks. I’ll stay here and continue my research. I wish I had thought to bring some of my lab equipment from home. I could do so much more if I had it.” She mused.

“Mr. Stark, do you want to come?” Peter asked Tony, this time a lot more cautiously. She thought it might be because Peter looked up to him and didn’t want to offend him.

“I’ve got work to do back at the Tower, so I’m leaving. Try not to let Fury pull any bullshit, he’s on my nerves enough as it is.” Peter looked genuinely sad at this.

“Alright.” And with that, Tony walked out.

“Peter, try to ask any questions that you can, okay? I’m going to need definite answers soon if I want to make any progress,” Shuri whispered to Peter as he walked by. He nodded. Peter and Eclipse walked out of the lab.

* * *

Two hours later, they walked into a huge room filled with many people, all undergoing training by fighting flying machines. Peter had gone ahead and changed into the suit he had been wearing when she had arrived here. He explained it was because there was a good chance someone would ask him to come and train, and he didn’t want to fight without it. It seemed strange to Eclipse, but she had shrugged it off.

“And here is the training room for the Academy. Right now, everyone is doing fighting practice against the drones, but we also set up other courses to test everyone’s agility, strength, and the like.” It didn’t take long for those training to notice the newcomers. Eclipse found that she recognized four of them; they were all there when she had come to this dimension. It was safe to say at this point that she was in a different realm because this place didn’t feel quite the same. Part of it, she determined, was that this place wasn’t ripping itself apart.

“Uh, Web-head, isn’t that the crazy lady from yesterday? You better not be doing anything stupid bringing her here.” That was the blue glowing one.

“Shut it, Nova. You’re being rude.” Said the female in all white. Eclipse was not sure if her gender because now she could actually understand what she was saying in a distinctly female voice.

“Are we going to stand here and chat all day? Because if we are, I’m going back to training. I have better things to do with my time than listen to you all natter on all day.” Eclipse turned to face the male speaker. She couldn’t see his face because he had a mask on. He was dressed in a tight, dark red suit with a huge dark brown spider emblem on the front. She raised her eyebrows at him.

“Hold it, Scarlet,” Peter said. “I want to introduce everyone to Eclipse. She’s the one that White Tiger, Nova, Iron Fist, Powerman, and I were sent to deal with along with the Avengers.”

“So you’re from another dimension?” Asked a smaller male. He, like most everyone here, had on a mask and form-fitting suit. His was black with red accents and a small spider emblem on the front. Why were there so many people with the spider theme going on?

Peter, even though he hadn’t told her, had the same thing going on with him yesterday. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out, he had the same fuzzy aura around him that was present the day before. Only yesterday, it was buzzing, as if it was trying to warn Peter.

“Yes?” She was unsure of how to answer this question. She had no frame of reference as to how these people would react to the news.

“Me too! Though I doubt we’re from the same one.”

“Eclipse, this is Miles Morales.” Peter introduced them. They shook hands and Eclipse’s power immediately made a copy of Miles’s. What was interesting was how his powers were almost exactly the same as Peter’s.

“Peter, why are your powers almost exactly the same as Miles’s? I don’t know what they do because I’ve never seen anyone use them, but I’ve never known anyone to have that.”

“How did you know?” They both asked at the same time. It was kind of funny.

“I mean, for one thing, both of you and two others,” she pointed to Scarlet and a burly someone in black with a huge white spider emblem. “Have the same sort of fuzzy aura around you. And Peter’s was buzzing when I came. For another, when I copied your powers, they both felt similar.”

“That’s not at all creepy,” commented the one Peter had pointed out as Powerman.

“It shouldn’t be possible. Numbers don’t lie, but the readings I’m getting off her make no sense.” That was a male who was wearing a suit similar to the one Tony had, but with the spider theme, again.

“That’s Iron Spider, resident genius at the Academy. Mr. Sunshine over there is Scarlet Spider.” Peter said.

“Oh, so we’re using our superhero names,” Miles joked. “Then I’m Kid Arachnid!”

“So the rest here are Agent Venom,” that was the burly one that Peter pointed to. “Cloak and Dagger,” one wore a huge black cloak with the hood up so Eclipse couldn’t see his face really, and the other was a blond girl in all white. “Patrioteer,” this one was in another suit similar to Tony’s, but in red, white, and blue. “And Ms. Marvel.” She was a darker skinned girl with black hair and a purple tunic with a yellow lightning bolt on the front.

“Hello,” Eclipse said.

“Alright everyone, back to training.” The man in the plain suit from yesterday walked into the room. “Spider-Man, what is she doing out of the lab?”

“Agent Coulson, I decided to take her on a tour. It’s been fine, she hasn’t tried to kill anyone.”

“Yet,” she thought she heard someone mutter, though she couldn’t be sure.

“Well, now that she’s had her tour, she needs to go back,” the man said. “Though, I am impressed you got her to go along with you, considering the fact that she doesn’t speak English.”

“Yeah, about that,” Peter said.

“I can speak English, or whatever this language is called, fine, thank you very much!”

“And how did you master the English language in less than a day?” He asked.

“Umm.” Peter rocked back and forth on his feet. This was clearly very awkward for him.

“She copies people’s abilities, or she says she can.” That was Iron Spider. He sounded very much like a know it all. “But considering that I have no proof on that, I’m in no position to back it up.” Eclipse groaned.

“Peter, we’ve caused enough trouble. Can we go back now?” She almost begged. She had talked with and seen more people than she had in the last millennium. It was all overwhelming.

“Spider-Man, if you would be so kind as to escort her back to the lab?” It was not a request. Peter nodded and led Eclipse out of that room.

* * *

 Shuri was waiting for them when they got back.

“So, how was it?” She inquired.

“All too, overwhelming,” Eclipse said as she sat down on the bed. She wasn’t tired and knew she wouldn’t be for a couple of days. “I’m not sure how I feel about it.”

“It can take a lot to get used to. S.H.I.E.L.D. does that to people.” Peter said. “I hope none of them ticked you off, they can do that sometimes.”

Tick you off? She was glad that her taking some of Peter’s language knowledge also included what words and phrases meant. Though, she did have to search a little to find it. She had to dig through a TON on random quotes from who knows where to find it. When would someone ever need to use the phrase ‘it’s an avocado! Thanks.’ ever? It made no sense.

“Not really. I’m just not used to being around so many people. I’ve been alone for, a long time.” Her face darkened. She was trying to fight back tears. The tip of her braid was turning a vibrant, deep blue. She was extremely glad that neither Peter nor Shuri knew what the colors meant yet. She didn’t want their pity. She didn’t think she deserved it. On the other hand, it did mean that at least some of her memories were coming back if she remembered that much.

“Well, you’re not alone now. And shouldn’t be for a while. I heard that the plan was to keep you here for the time being.” Shuri said. “At least until all of these tests are finished. Speaking of which, I have some questions.”

“Alright, but I cannot guarantee I will answer them.” Eclipse was no fool. She knew what would happen if people really found out what she could do. It would happen again just like it did on her homeworld. People would get scared, and then angry, and then violent. And then they would come after her and they wouldn’t stop until they had her, no matter the consequences. And then, and then. . .

“What was that?” Shuri sounded confused. Eclipse couldn’t hear her. Her thoughts kept spiraling down and down and down. She was scared of what could happen, but she was also upset. She hated what had happened and she wished it hadn’t. The blue spread up her braid and that piercing white twined around it, completely shoving out the black.

“I’m not imagining that heartbeat, am I?” Shuri asked Peter. He looked back at Eclipse and jumped.

“Oh, that’s not good. You saw the footage from yesterday, right?” Shuri nodded. Then realization hit her.

“Peter, do something! Try and talk to her!” Peter ran up to Eclipse.

“Eclipse, can you hear me?” No response. In the end, it was Peter shaking her that finally brought her out of her spiral.

“What?” She was trembling slightly.

“Are you okay? You weren’t responding. And I’m fairly sure that it was your heartbeat that we were hearing.” Peter said. He was afraid. Eclipse didn’t like that.

“It was. I’m sorry about that. It happens.” She tried to brush it off but knew her excuses were weak.

“Peter, we should let her be for now,” Shuri said, picking up on Eclipse’s not-so-subtle signal. “We’ll be back in the morning.” She began shutting down all of the computer files.

“Oh, before I forget,” Peter looked back at Eclipse. “I want to ask you something. Don’t worry, nothing bad, just something to think about.”

“Okay.”

“If you want and are alright with it, we can see if you could join the Academy. I mean, it seems as if Fury plans to keep you here, so might as well make the best of it. It would also be a great way for you to learn about Earth. I mean, you don’t have to accept, but think about it.”

“And it would give you a chance to figure out how you got here, considering that S.H.I.E.L.D. is in possession of many artifacts that could have brought you here,” Shuri added.

“Thanks for the offer,” Eclipse told both of them. “Before you go, do you have anything that I can brush my hair with and a mirror to look in? I’d like to fix my braid tonight.”

“Um, sure,” Peter replied. “Be right back.” He returned several minutes later with a hairbrush and a medium-sized mirror. “Here you go.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you in the morning, I guess.” Eclipse waved at them as they walked out, dimming the lights as they left. She turned to the mirror and began the painstaking task of taking down her hair.

* * *

 After several hours and numerous upon numerous retries (her hands had to remember how braiding worked), Eclipse tied off her braid and stretched. It felt good to do so. She considered Peter’s request. On the one hand, she would get to learn more about Earth and possibly refine her fighting skills, maybe even use them in order to prevent the destruction of this place. Selfless really wasn’t her thing, but after the events that had transpired on her homeworld, even if she couldn’t fully remember them, she felt it was her duty to make sure nothing like that ever, EVER happened again.  

On the other hand, she had developed the mindset that no one could be trusted. The one time she had tried it after the full truth came out, it had ended with her almost being killed. It was those events, and their outcome of her dimension ripping itself to pieces, that were burned into her memory. Now that she thought back on it, she spent the first few decades of being trapped reliving them over and over again. Perhaps that was why she remembered them and barely anything else.

Eclipse didn’t have any clue if these new people could be trusted or not. Based on what she had seen today, they were curious about her, not really afraid. Well, not of her. She did not blame them in the least for being afraid of Enigma, as that power entity called itself, herself. The power in her stones had become too uncontrollable when she was afraid, causing her to lose control. It had taken a matter of months of Eclipse being constantly afraid of her own fear before the power began to develop its own ideas. Those being destruction and causing more fear. She never really thought about Enigma that much because the mere concept of it, her, sent cold shivers down her spine. It was a very thin and dangerous line to walk on.

In the end, she decided that it could do her no real harm to join up. She might get some of her questions answered if she did. After all, Peter, or rather Spider-Man when he was at the Academy, seemed to like her, so she wouldn’t be alone. Alone. Eclipse didn’t like to think about it. It was strange, she liked being on her own, being responsible for only herself, but at the same time, she hated the concept. She hated having no one there when she needed them, hated not being able to have other people around her, even if she didn’t know them. It was that being lost and never feeling another soul or presence or something around her that she despised.

She stared at her palms. A thought popped into her head. She had been feeling stronger by the minute, so maybe her powers had fully returned. There seemed like no better time to test her theory, so she got up off the bed. She was going to start slow, she decided. She gazed around the room until she found a small stool. It would work well as an object for her to test her powers on.

She stretched out her left hand toward it, silver winking in her eyes only as she called upon her powers. She willed the stool to lift, and it did. Next, she called the stool to her and it came. Feeling relieved, she turned to a bigger object, the desk with all of its accompanying screens and the like. She reached again, and the desk rose. It was no harder than lifting the stool, which was good news because it meant that this particular aspect of her power was back to normal.

Her next attempt was going to be teleportation. She could only teleport to where she could see, so that limited her options in the room. Besides, she was only going to go a few feet at a time, keeping her distances short. Eclipse focused on the place next to the desk and pulled herself onto the Edge of Time, out of the normal time flow of whatever world she was in. It was reassuring to know that she could, as her last attempt had been less than successful.

The Edge stretched up and down into infinity, but she had only a few yards of standing room between what she always thought of like a wall from where she had come from to where she was going to. She never had to walk forward out of the Edge, she just willed herself off of it and she was where she had teleported to. Eclipse knew in her mind that the moment she teleported, she was at her destination. Time never changed when she teleported, but she could still function outside of its normal flow while on the Edge.

With her attempt proving successful, Eclipse began teleporting to the far edges of the room, all without fail. She was relieved and glad to know that her powers were fully working again. She sighed and decided to work on some of her fighting moves until morning. Those moves had saved her life on many occasions and were often used in tandem with her weapon. Much of what she used was aided by her spatial control, which allowed her to move with more agility, put more power behind her hits, and be in better control. She had no idea what fighting was truly like on Earth, but her routine would probably still work.

Eclipse began with simple punches and kicks, unaided at first, but slowly adding more power and speed as she went with the help of her powers. Then she moved on to more complex jumping and spinning kicks, as well as dodging maneuvers like rolls and teleportation mid-strike. Lastly, she began to pair her kicks and punches with teleportation, starting a kick or punch and teleporting mid-strike to change her angle of attack.

She also included teleporting into the air and doing kicks from different angles, including from up above. Those were always the hardest because she had to sense where she wanted to be in the air before she teleported so she didn’t end up on the opposite side of the room from where she wanted to be. That was always a risk when fighting outside because she could attempt to teleport up above someone and then be several miles off in the distance.

The work was extremely difficult due to the fact that she was out of practice, but Eclipse welcomed the challenge. She worked for a majority of the night. Slowly but surely, she began to work her way back to where she had been skill-wise before she had sealed herself. Every moment she worked, she felt stronger, more focused, more alive. She grinned. It felt good.

A knock on the lab door stopped her mid kick. Was it morning already? Eclipse didn’t know because there were no windows in the room, and also because she wasn’t exactly sure of the day cycle yet. Spider-Man walked in.

“You’re already up?” He asked. “Did you even sleep? You look like you’ve been working out.”

“That’s because I have been,” Eclipse replied. “Do you need something?”

“I just wanted to come and see if you had made a decision about joining the Academy.”  

“I mean, I’ve thought about it, but I’m really not sure if I’ll fit in. I’m not like everyone else.” Again with the self-pity. Eclipse hated the fact that she was using it again.

“Were you even paying attention yesterday? Everyone’s different in their own way, that’s why we’re all here.” Spider-Man’s eyes on his mask crinkled with laughter. She found it odd that it did that, but she guessed it was for him to express emotion like her hair did for her.

“Oh, okay. Then I’ll join! If I’m going to stay here, then I might as well be prepared for whatever gets thrown at me.” She said that last phrase with such reassurance that Spider-Man’s eyes widened in surprise. The way that she had said the last phrase bothered him slightly, it was like she knew that bad things were going to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did you like this one? I hope this helped clear up the last chapter, seeing as we actually know about Eclipse this time. So, just some general notes: Eclipse's native language sounds a lot like Midna's does in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It has that same warbled and disconnected tone to it and many of the words are quite similar, but the voice tone/pitch is the same as a normal human. My love of Zelda and Star Wars is quite apparent, at least in my mind, in regards to some of the references. If you can guess any others, please tell me! As for Eclipse's unarmed fighting style, look at how Sheik and Linkle with both of her weapons fight in Hyrule Warriors. That game is going to end up being a big inspiration when it comes to fighting, seeing as how there are so many different fighting styles. So if you get confused, just look at some footage from that game and see if it clears anything up.


	3. The Academy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eclipse experiences her first day at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, with interesting results. All things considered, social interactions are hard and the whole experience could've gone a whole lot better for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three's here! This one is longer than the first two chapters, but that's because more needed to happen in this one. That being said, there will be really no target length for each chapter, it all depends on what needs to happen. Enjoy!

Eclipse and Spider-Man walked through the hallways of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy until they came to a tiered room with many desks and a huge screen in the front of the room. Some of the other students she had been introduced to yesterday were already occupying some of the seats. She noticed that there were two figures at the front of the room, both wearing helmets that completely covered their faces. One’s suit had a red and silver color scheme, while the others was yellow, blue, and silver.

“So, what exactly are we doing here?” Eclipse leaned over and asked. They had stopped in the doorway.

“Well,” Spider-Man began. “Most of the classes teach battle tactic, supervillain analysis, and other useful skills used by us heroes. The others are battle training classes. Some of the students here, like Ms. Marvel, only attend in the summer, which is right now, and attend other schools in the fall. Though, if you’re interested, I can see if there could be a way for you to take classes not offered here, like science, as independent study.”

“Um, okay.” Spider-Man led her to a desk toward the back of the occupied rows. He took the seat next to her. She stared in wonder at the strange screen before her. She poked it and her power flooded through the screen, but then continued on to the one next to it, and the one next to that. Eclipse felt her power spread through the entire room. Anything that she could see that was all connected by this strange energy field, her power filled up.

All of the screens flashed gold, as well as the other pieces of technology in the room. Eclipse couldn’t control the flash this time, she had never copied the power of something so immense and interconnected before. She struggled to pull herself free of the power before she got completely lost, but she did. Questions flooded her head. She had no inkling of where to start trying to decipher what she had just copied. And what was that rhythmic wave that she felt from all of those devices? It was so familiar, she felt as if she could hear it. Those thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Iron Spider.

“WHAT was that just now?” He accused. Eclipse shrank back a little. She sorely wished she could just turn invisible, but knew it would only make matters worse if she did. “My entire armor shorted out for a few moments and it wasn’t doing that before you got in the room.”

“I did what?” Eclipse asked, still slightly nervous and confused. White and yellow played across the bottom of her braid, but she moved to cover it with her hand.

“You shorted my armor out. Everything glowed gold and then I got energy readings that matched the energy coming off of you. How did you manage to hack into my armor without even setting off any alarms in my security system?” Iron Spider’s tone shifted slightly from angry to mildly interested. More people walked over, making her more nervous.

“I just touched the screen and then my power was everywhere. I thought that it would just copy the screen’s ability when my power just spread throughout the room. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Panic was start to set in a little. What had she done? Spider-Man picked up on it.

“Hey, Iron Spider, back off. We’ll deal with it later, okay?” Iron Spider grumbled at Spider-Man, but he walked back to his seat.

“If we’re all finished here, we need to get started.” The one in the front of the room wearing red and silver spoke up. “Today we’re going to be going over undercover infiltration into security systems.”

“Oh boy, more useless information.” That was Scarlet Spider. Eclipse snorted. She couldn’t help it. Scarlet Spider’s sense of humor, at least as what she saw as humor, amused her. Purple, symbolizing happiness, spread across her braid. It felt good to have a happy moment.

“The one in red is Ant-Man and the one in silver, yellow and blue is the Wasp. They’re both Avengers and occasionally teach here.” Spider-Man explained quickly. Eclipse nodded.

“Now, I know that we have a slight advantage because we can both shrink, but our knowledge of computers and especially Ant-Man’s *cough* ‘special skills’,” The Wasp didn’t the chance to finish. Eclipse jumps out of her seat.

“You can SHRINK?!” She asked in amazement. “How can you do it? I didn’t think anyone could do anything like I can do.” She was also unsettled because here was another problem. There were now more people who could combat her powers, more people who could turn on her and possibly beat her at her own game.

“Well, we can’t shrink on our own, but there is a particle called the Pym Particle that shrinks objects as well as people.” The Wasp explained. Ant-Man seemed slightly puzzled by the fact that Eclipse had mentioned some of her powers.

“You can shrink?” He asked. He didn’t sound afraid, just curious.

“Among other things,” Eclipse mumbled. She hadn’t meant for the others to catch on about her powers.

“What other things?” Iron Spider asked, now slightly suspicious.

“I, uh.” She really didn’t want to discuss this now. So, rather than answer his question, she chose the polite way out. She turned invisible and slowly shuffled to the back of the room. Maybe, just maybe, she thought if they couldn’t see her, they would carry on and forget her statement. Eclipse was dead wrong. Iron Spider turned his head, following her movements even though she was sure no one could see her. She knew that because her sight changed slightly when she was invisible, colors became slightly different, as they were now.

“Eclipse, that is your name, right? Will you come back? We need to start this lesson and this is not helping anyone.” Wasp stated. Insect-like wings folded out from her suit and she flew over to stand next to Iron Spider.

“Promise you won’t ask any more questions?” The unseen Eclipse inquired. Spider-Man walked over and elbowed Iron Spider.

“Ugh, fine.” He said. If she had been able to see his eyes, she was sure he had rolled them. She re-appeared again and trudged back to her seat. Everyone else returned to theirs as well.

The lesson began and Eclipse paid attention, but due to the fact that she didn’t truly grasp the idea of the technology they were talking about, she had trouble following. She also noticed that students kept sneaking glances at her. It made her quite uncomfortable.

* * *

 

Some time later, Eclipse wasn’t exactly sure how long, all the students walked into the huge training room they had been in yesterday. They all seemed to know what was coming because the second they walked in, they all assumed fighting stances. And then the drones began to fly at them, shooting lasers everywhere. Eclipse just stood there, unsure what to do. She sensed one coming up behind her, and it startled her. She spun around quickly, her braid snapping like a whip and slicing straight through the drone with all of the momentum it had picked up.

All of the drones immediately turned to face her. Eclipse looked around and considered her options. She didn’t want to use her weapon in case it wouldn’t work; she hadn’t had a chance to test it the night before. She also had no idea how strong the drones really were and how damaging the lasers were, so that threw out hand to hand combat. Which left one option: freezing them in place with her spatial powers. It gave no real way to attack them, but if the drones were weak enough, then if she shoved them back into the wall they would break. Everyone around her paused to see what Eclipse would do. The drones began firing.

Eclipse raised her left hand, palm forward, silver glinting off of her stone, and stopped all the motion of the drones. Everything froze in place. Unfortuniatly, she hadn’t just frozen the drones in place. The people also stopped moving.

“Stupid,” She muttered to herself, not realizing that she had switched back to her original language. “ _This is what happens when you don’t practice with your powers and focus on what you’re doing! Great, just great. How’s school going, Eclipse? Oh, it’s fine, except for the fact that I CAN’T KEEP A GRIP ON WHAT THE HECK I’M DOING!!_ ” Eclipse berated herself, her hair turning slightly red. She had the sneaking suspicion that she had just dug herself into a much deeper hole. Thank goodness that Peter’s language knowledge was so vast. She slowly released everyone that had been frozen in place, and then slammed the drones into the floor, shattering them.

“Okay, that was weird,” Ms. Marvel commented. “I was stuck in the same place and I couldn’t move anything!” Everyone else made agreement noises. Then they all turned to face Eclipse, who had been slowly backing to the wall.

“Eclipse, I think you owe us an explanation.” That was White Tiger. She sounded concerned, not angry, which was good. Eclipse wasn’t entirely sure that she wouldn’t have slapped someone if they had been angry.

“You want the less complicated version, or the version that I haven’t figured out entirely myself?” Eclipse snapped. It was less out of anger and more out of stress about the situation.

“Um, I’d like the answer that doesn’t get me killed,” piped up Miles. She sighed.

“I’ll just give you a brief explanation. So I have these crystals in my hands,” she held them up to show everyone. “And I don’t really remember how they got there. All I know is that the gold one allows me to copy and take abilities of someone or something and use it myself. The silver one controls space, as in the space around something. So that’s why I can freeze, lift, and push things. I can also teleport to where I can see and turn invisible. If I focus a little differently, I can shrink as well.” Eclipse spilled out the story all in a rush. Then she teleported to the other side of the room to get away from everyone.

“Can you stop acting like a child and stop running away from us?” Accused Iron Spider. The rest of the group walked over to where Eclipse was standing. She stared at them for a moment before leaning on the wall and sliding down it. Then she started to laugh, but it was a laugh that was filled with pain and a little hysterics. Her hair completely turned such a dark blue that it seemed to pull in the light around it.

“What’s so funny? Was there a joke told that I missed? I hate it when I miss jokes and people don’t tell me.” Agent Venom said, sounding very confused. At least he was being mostly serious, not trying to lighten the mood.

“There’s no joke, unless you consider her going crazy a joke, but I’m not laughing.” Powerman replied. Eclipse stopped her laughing and stared at everyone with very cold eyes.

“I’m nowhere near the age of a child.”

“Really, cause you look about the same age as me.” Ms. Marvel said.

“If only. Well, I guess if you count years that I was awake, I’d be seventeen.” Eclipse sighed.

“But,” prodded Nova.

“But, I’ve been, oh how do I put this, suspended from reality for a thousand years.” Eclipse didn’t look up to see how everyone reacted.

“What do you mean ‘suspended from reality’? I mean Captain America was frozen for seventy years and didn’t age really during that time. Is it like that?” The one that Eclipse remembered was called Patrioteer asked.

“I mean I guess, but I could think during at least the beginning part of it. And don’t try and say that I’m lying, I’ve got proof.” Eclipse held up her wrists so the double bracelets were visible. Iron Fist leaned in and examined them. She felt him stretch out his magic aura, as she called it, into the bracelets own power. She could tell that he was exploring those deep wells of power and she saw him flinch a little when he reached the core of them.

“The power in those bracelets feel ancient and very new at the same time. It’s like each stone is telling a story, like each one represents a year. It’s hard to explain, but I definitely feel it.” Iron Fist said to the rest of the group. There were questions asked, but Eclipse wasn’t paying attention to them. She was feeling extremely stressed and what she really wanted was to go and continue training as a way to clear her head. One question did catch her attention, however. It was Scarlet Spider’s.

“So can you actually use the powers of people you’ve copied? You said that was how you now understand English, but I’ve never seen you do it, so how can I believe you?” He sounded very skeptical and slightly out of patience. He had every right to be.

“Well, I can show you if you’d like,” Eclipse offered. She honestly hadn’t expected him to accept, but he did. “First, can you show me some of your moves and the like so I know what I’m supposed to be replicating in they way it’s done?”

“Fine,” Scarlet Spider grumbled. He jumped onto the wall and stood there for a moment before shooting what looked like webs out of his wrists and then swinging around the room with them. Finally, he landed into one of the still robots that had been deployed earlier and sliced across it with sharp point-like blades that came from his wrists as well before kicking the robot, sending it across the room.

“That was really cool.” Eclipse said. She walked up to him and grabbed his arm with her right hand. Her power flowed through him and she felt a power similar to Peter’s and Miles’s, but there was something different to it. The other two had felt as every other person had felt, but Scarlet Spider felt slightly off. It wasn’t his powers, it was his very being, as if it wasn’t completely human. She resolved to ask Spider-Man about it later.

Eclipse pulled her power out of him in less than a moment, she had all she needed. She regarded how the new power felt and then turned to face the wall behind her. She prodded it with her foot before stepping onto its side. Surprisingly, to her at least, she didn’t fall off of it. She grinned, her hair slowly turning a vibrant, happy purple at the sheer joy of doing something seemingly impossible. Eclipse sprinted up the wall and then ran around on the ceiling.

That done, she went back down to the wall and braced herself on her feet, leaning her back against the wall before she looked at her wrist. How had Scarlet Spider done it? It must’ve been with a special motion. She looked back down to see Spider-Man mimicking the gesture that had been used, wrist out with both the middle and ring fingers pulled into the palm. Eclipse tried it and thought of those webs that shot out and they did! The webs stuck to the ceiling and she jumped off the wall, swinging around on different ones as she shot them off and leaped to them. She flipped backward off of one and popped out her wrist, sending out those needle-like blades before plunging them into one of the disabled drones beneath her. She sprung backwards off of it in several flips, using her spatial control to gain more height, before landing in an odd position that she’d seen the one’s with spider powers land in. It was a position that had her landing with her feet slightly apart and her knees completely bending so her hands touched the ground before she got up again.

And then a strange thing happened, well two strange things, really. First, she felt her body shift, as if it was trying to change forms. Eclipse managed to hold on to hers, but she could still feel that shift, but it wasn’t coming from her. It was coming from the power she had copied off of Scarlet Spider. All of those thoughts were pushed from her mind, though, when she felt a crack. And then another. And then another. They kept going on and on. And they hurt! Her hair flashed bright bronze with the pain she felt. Bright lights played across her eyes.

Eclipse immediately went down on all fours and spread her power out through the ground below her. The only good that she found was that the cracks weren’t coming from this realm that she could feel. Eclipse then pulled her power in and searched inside of herself. It was quite difficult with the cracking still continuing and her head reeling. She discovered a small tie deep inside her which stretched out into eternity. It was that tie that was sending the cracks and such to her, which was why she had thought that this dimension was sending them. Once she honed in on them, they stopped and she was able to relax slightly. The pain washed out, but her hands were throbbing from the stress the power had placed on them.

“I have to go,” Eclipse blurted out before she sprinted out of the room.

* * *

 

Once out, she managed to find her way outside and then teleport to the top of the sloped roof of the Academy. She soaked in the light and the warmth and sighed as a breeze off of the water brushed past her. She plopped down and dangled her legs off the side of the roof. Eclipse closed her eyes and tilted her face up to the sun, basking in its warmth. Thoughts kept popping into her head, but she brushed them aside, not wanting to deal with them at the moment.

For the first time since she had arrived in this strange new place, she completely relaxed. Eclipse let her awareness swirl around her as she felt the planet. It felt calm and peaceful in comparison to her own home, at least as how she remembered her home. She began the slow breathing of meditation, allowing herself to sink into her power and realign herself with the universe. Eclipse had felt off and stretched thin, but now she pulled all of her power back into her very being and set her body to the rhythm of the world. She felt balanced, centered. She let out her breath and honed in on her power, shaping it back to a refined core, not a huge loose net of uncontrollable energy.

Time passed. Eclipse was content to just sit and breathe, not even focusing on the world around her. That turned out to be a mistake when someone behind her spoke, causing her to nearly fall off the roof.

“Are you alright?” It was Shuri. Eclipse breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t have the courage to face those who had been in that training room again. “Peter told me what happened and I studied the footage from the training room.”

“I don’t know.” At least it was an honest response. “I didn’t mean for it to all come out like that. I wanted to introduce myself slowly. I didn’t want to cause another repeat of what happened a long time ago.” Eclipse felt herself tearing up. Why was she crying? She had no real reason to cry. And yet, she did. All of the stress and whatnot from the past two days came rushing in. Shuri kept her distance.

“Was it really that bad back there?” Shuri asked. “You looked like you were having fun, at least for a little while. I should’ve told those idiots to take it easy on you! They had no business barging in on your secrets. We all have them. Big and small. For example, I never deleted the footage of T’Challa getting thrown across my lab by his new suit! Granted, that isn’t really a secret.” Shuri looked thoughtful for a moment before she pressed her bracelet and a screen hovered over it. Eclipse stared in shock at it. Shuri pressed it and a video started of someone, her brother seemingly, kicking a black suit with a purple spot on it on a mannequin before a purple explosion occurred, sending him flying. Eclipse could hear Shuri laughing before the man pointed at her and said ‘delete that footage!’. The video ended. Eclipse laughed.

A breeze brushed by them again. Eclipse stretched her hands before standing up and twirling around. She brushed Shuri’s arm. It was an old habit to do so. What Eclipse found in Shuri wasn’t a power, it was all knowledge that Eclipse couldn’t even begin to comprehend. She held onto that copy and made a mental note to look at it later.

“We really should be getting back, you’ve been out here for over five hours.” Shuri rubbed the spot Eclipse had brushed before heading toward the door to the roof. “ And besides, it’s almost time for us to eat.”

“Eat? Why would I do that?” Eclipse joined Shuri at the door and they walked down several flights of stairs to the main floor.

“You’re joking, right? Everyone needs to eat!” Shuri led Eclipse to another large room with many long tables.

“I usually don’t. I just take the energy from the area around me. I’ve been sitting in the sun for awhile, I feel fine.” Eclipse said.

“Sure. Come we are getting you some food. And after that I will show you the dormitories where you will sleep.” Shuri insisted, despite the stubborn look on Eclipse’s face. Shuri gave her a tray and loaded it with different foods that Eclipse couldn’t even begin to name. She sat Eclipse down at a table and joined her, starting on her own plate. Eclipse ate a little before she glanced up and looked around at the room. All of the other students were there. Some of them started to get up, but each time Spider-Man pulled them back down into their seats. A question came to Eclipse.

“Shuri, I touched one of the screens in the classroom today. My power spread throughout all the room, but that’s not what I’m asking about, not really. Something stuck out to me. It was this strange rhythm with many different sounds, and it sounded really nice. I just don’t know what you would call it. The knowledge of this language I took from Peter helps with general understanding of things, but I don’t always get the name of things. Or maybe it’s there and I haven’t found it. But what would you call it?” Eclipse asked.

“Music, would you like to hear some?” Shuri pulled out a black box with a screen and turned it on. “This is what we call a cellphone. It is very primitive compared to what we have back in Wakanda, but T’Challa, who is also the king, didn’t want S.H.I.E.L.D. having access to all of our technology, so I have this one. They have speakers on them that can produce sound.” Eclipse nodded along. Bits of knowledge that she had copied from Shuri were coming to the surface of her thoughts, helping to explain what Shuri was talking about.

“We had music at home, I think. I don’t really recall what it sounded like, but it was something I always enjoyed.” Eclipse said.

“I’m not going to play any out loud for you, but I’ll let you have some headphones that you can wear and you can have my phone for a while. I’ll have to go get headphones from the lab. I’ll be right back.” Shuri said as she stood up. Eclipse looked back down at the phone and started scrolling through the songs that were pulled up. They all had such weird names. She glanced up when she felt more eyes on her. Her hair turned back to the dark blue again. She slowly faded into invisibility, once again hoping that if they couldn’t see her they wouldn’t think about her. This time, at least, it worked. Everyone looked away. Shuri walked back in the room. Eclipse teleported to her and removed her invisibility. Shuri jumped.

“Don’t scare me like that! It is very rude to sneak up on people and appear out of nowhere.” Shuri accused. “I have some headphones.” She held up a pair of purple and white wireless headphones. “Come on, I’ll show you how to use them when we get to the dormitory.”

“I have to sleep around other people?” Eclipse groaned. That was honestly the last thing she wanted right now.

“You are a student at the Academy, so you are required to stay there. It would be best for you to try and act like a normal student most of the time, it will help you adjust better.” Shuri said. They rounded the corner and entered a room with tables in the center and many alcoves carved into the walls. “Those hollows are the bunks where you sleep.” Shuri explained.

“So, do I just take any one?” Eclipse asked.

“No, of course not! Each person had their own assigned bunk. You can choose from one of those.” Shuri pointed to two empty top and bottom bunks at the back of the room. Eclipse chose the top bunk with the best view of the room, which also happened to be the farthest away from everyone, which suited her fine.

“What now?” Eclipse inquired.

“Well, the others should be back very soon, and then it’s lights out at eleven. Classes begin at 8:30 tomorrow after breakfast. The schedule should be fairly normal, for awhile least. Since you’re new here, they tend to stick to a routine and not throw surprises too often.”

“Got it. Oh, before you go, are there any blankets or anything in here? It’s kind of cold.” Eclipse requested. It wasn’t actually cold, but due to the fact that Eclipse’s body heat took in some of the cooler air in the building, she was feeling some chills.

“There are some in the box by the corner.” Shuri pointed them out before waving and walking out of the room for the night. Eclipse smiled and decided that she liked Shuri. She hadn’t ever, so far, been afraid of Eclipse’s powers. She had pretty much accepted her for who she was, and had treated her as a person rather than a threat. Eclipse levered herself from the bed and pulled at least four blankets from the box. Their colors ranged from a tealish aqua to a deep, rich purple. She brought them over to her bung and made really a nest out of them before she got in and wound herself up in them. After that, she put on the headphones and connected them to the phone. Shuri’s knowledge of technology really came in handy, otherwise she would’ve been completely lost.

Eclipse browsed the music genres and weeded out those which she knew she wouldn’t like. Both Peter and Shuri seemed to have a very vast knowledge of music, so she used those ideas about what music should sound like to make her choices. Rap was out. Why would anyone ever want to listen to someone just say words to a backbeat. Boring! Country was also a no. They all seemed to sound the same when she played the beginning of them. Blues was too sad, and quite frankly to her, boring. She decided to hold off on soundtracks to things like movies and shows until she was sure what they referenced. She searched a while longer until she had two broad categories to start with. Orchestral and pop. Eclipse started the enormous orchestral playlist. It looked as if it included instrumental songs as well at instrumental covers of songs.

Sounds of strings and pianos entered her ears. Eclipse was surprised to know what the instruments were, and even more surprised to know how each of them looked and how they should sound on their own. The even more shocking factor was that all of that information came from her, not from the combined knowledge of Peter and Shuri. So maybe, just maybe, Eclipse’s home and this new world were more similar than she had first thought. That music struck a chord deep within her very being and, for the first time since she arrived here, she felt at home. The songs played on and on, and as they did, she began to let go of all her thoughts and extra awareness, but at the same time, her senses heightened. It was something she could never explain. Her brain focused to a point and she could feel herself slowly move under the beat of the music.

The noise of the other students walking into the room broke Eclipse from her trance. She scanned the room quickly and saw that everyone had headed to their own bunks. The lights dimmed significantly, but not to the point of pitch darkness. That was good. Eclipse couldn’t operate well in the dark. She had no heightened vision, and her spatial awareness only went so far. She also couldn’t teleport in the dark because she would have no idea where she was going. Eclipse continued to listen to her music while she waited for everyone to fall asleep. An idea had come to her earlier and now seemed to be the best time to act on it.

Eclipse decided to keep her music on her as she jumped lightley off the bunk to the floor. She didn’t want to risk teleporting in the semi-darkness until she knew how it would affect her. The idea to pass through the room invisible, though, completely slipped her mind. She thought everyone was asleep, so she didn’t even bother. It would later turn out that she was wrong about that fact.

Softly, she padded down the dark and empty halls to the training room. The lights turned on when she entered, but they were dimmer, which suited her nicely. Later, Eclipse would question where her common sense had gone, but for now she disconnected her headphones and turned up the volume on the phone to have the music play out loud. It surprised her how loud it was when the volume was all the way up, but it meant that she would be able to hear it over her training.

Last night, Eclipse had begun work on her weaponless fighting skills. She practiced them again for three or four songs before she moved on to acrobatic feats and dodges. Eclipse herself was not at all flexible or even that agile. But with the aid of her spatial abilities, she could perform numerous flips and dodges. Those were more difficult and wore her out more, but that was because they all almost solely relied on her maneuvering herself midair with her powers. Nevertheless, they were always a joy to perform. She worked on those for around half an hour before she stopped, paused the music, and pulled her weapon off of her belt.

The deep black metal-like stone felt heavy and cold in her hands. Her right hand thumbed the activation button, but didn’t press it. Not yet. She ran her other hand over the bottom of the hilt, where she could twist it to change the type of weapon her hilt and blade formed. Speaking of the blade, she used her power to sense the crystal housed within the hilt. It felt as it always had, powerful and patient at the same time. Eclipse sucked in a breath and steeled herself before pressing the activation button.

Whatever Eclipse had expected, that was not it. The blade activated as normal in its base saber form. The pale blue-purple blade that was threaded with red added a glow to the room. She focused in on the blade and it stabilized into a steady, solid blade instead of a wavering one. The blade’s wavering form put off high temperatures, which made it ideal for causing major damage to enemies or cutting through material. The solid form was more practical for regular combat.

She started the music again. She had the feeling somewhere deep in her soul that it would help keep her mind and body steady. The song name flashed. Canon in D. Eclipse didn’t recognize the name, but when the tune started, it struck a chord so profound that she nearly cried. It wasn’t because it was sad, in fact, the song felt hopeful. It was because of the fact that she recognized the tune, one from a lifetime she had left behind. She felt the music flow through her and it helped her sharpen her mind to a razor’s point. Eclipse’s body began to sway in time with the rhythm, so she gave her sword an experimental swing.

The music dictated the speed of her swings, passes, spins, and thrusts with her sword. She didn’t mind the slower pace, it worked her muscles in a different way. As the music sped up, so did her sword. She ignored everything else and just focused in on her blade. Nothing else mattered. It was just her, her power, her sword, and the music. She didn’t need anything else. She felt exhilarated. All of it combined with the sheer happiness of the music and the happiness she felt from using her weapon to present itself as a complete, sparking, purple braid.

The song changed to one with one with a faster and more defined beat. Eclipse began to perform her movements on the beat, and she allowed it to command her motions. She slowly but surely began to teleport around with her attacks, which allowed her more angles from which to strike. She wished she could have an opponent or even a pole to practice against so she could have something real to strike at. That would come later. The song picked up the pace and Eclipse was totally lost in it. Unthinking, she still moved on the beat, but now she felt like she had less control. She could feel the vibrations in the air and her body was trying to match them. She tried to stop, but found that she couldn’t. Just this once, she promised herself, she let herself get carried away by the music. It felt wonderful.

And then the music stopped. Eclipse fell out of the beat and she spread her senses to see what had caused it. There was now a person standing by the door.

* * *

 

Peter had almost been asleep when sounds that were not normal sleep sounds caused him to look around. He was now grateful that the Academy required them to stay in uniform when present. It made it so that he had his suit on him, which meant access to his A.I. Karen, and with her, nightvision. He clearly saw Eclipse sneak out of the room. What was she doing? None of them were allowed to wander at night, and he was sure that Eclipse had been told that. But what if she wanted to be alone? That was fine but that still meant that she was breaking the rules and he should go after her. But if he left then he too, was going to get in trouble.

He went back and forth like this for several minutes before he too, quietly got off his bunk. He had no idea where she would’ve gone. He spent the better part of an hour searching for her. His search ended when he heard music and followed it to the training room. There was Eclipse. With a freaking lightsaber! Oh, he would have to tell Shuri about that, because Eclipse was literally a character out of Star Wars! Peter walked in the room, but she didn’t notice him. He found the phone that the music was playing out of and paused it. Eclipse stopped swinging her lightsaber.

* * *

 

Eclipse didn’t even register who it was before she used a huge assisted leap to double backflip to the person. Midflip, she twisted the bottom of her weapon’s hilt. It lengthened quickly into a glaive, a weapon with a foot long, slightly curved, blade attached to a five and a half foot long staff. There was a circular blade guard at the bottom of the blade. She landed in front of the person and swung her glaive around in a wide crescent to her right to level the blade at the person’s throat.

She froze and then lowered her blade when Spider-Man gulped and stepped back hastily. The yellow of surprise at the bottom of her braid quickly turned red with irritation.

“Do NOT sneak up on me like that! I could’ve killed you!” Eclipse did not mention, however, that she wasn’t entirely sure if she would’ve been able to stop her training if the music had still been playing. It was as if the music controlled her. That was a rather unsettling thought to have.

“You, uh,” he stuttered.

“Either say something or go away. I was in the middle of something.” Eclipse glared at him. She propped up her glaive next to her. With her own height being just around 5’8”, the blade reached into the air above her.

“That was SO COOL! Like seriously. Where did you learn to do that?” Spider-Man asked energetically. Eclipse shifted back and forth. She really hadn’t meant for anyone to see her practicing until everyone was used to her unusual ways. From experiences she couldn’t remember, from feelings ingrained into her bones really, she knew it was bad to give everything away at once. But she had run away from problems too much today. She needed to give some answers.

“I learned all of this a long time ago. I managed to hold on to the skills, but not where I learned it all. But some of it, I know I taught to myself. Especially when combining many of my abilities together that make up my fighting style.” Eclipse attempted to explain. She knew it wasn’t much, but that was the only answer she had for Spider-Man.

“Even if you really don’t remember, it is still amazing! Why weren’t you using this all during training today?”

“I hadn’t meant to even show some of what I could do today. I wanted to blend in and not cause any trouble, not make a big spectacle of my powers like that. I’m just really not used to all of this ‘people’ thing. Or social interactions in general, but I don’t think I was ever any good at them in the first place, even before I came here.”

“That makes sense, a little at least. I do think some of the group was a little nervous, though, from when you arrived on Earth. What was that?” Spider-Man led them both away from the door and they took a seat on a bench. Eclipse pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged on the bench after she had deactivated her glaive, pulled the staff back into its sword hilt form, and replaced it on her belt. She was nervous to talk about the other side of herself, but someone had to know, and she trusted Spider-Man, to some extent.

“That was me, sort of. There’s this power, or entity, I guess, living in my head. I suppose that she’s part of the stones that give me my power. I know I should remember other things about her, but I just can’t. The more I’m awake in this world, the more I remember and the more I’m adapting to things like the technology and such.” Eclipse said. Spider-Man nodded and appeared to think of something. His eyes narrowed slightly and Eclipse had no way of knowing what it meant. She was put on edge by this. He yawned and she relaxed a little.

“You know, you really aren’t supposed to be out and about at night. We should get you back before anyone asks any questions. Why were you up anyways, shouldn’t you be sleeping?” He asked. He yawned again.

“I don’t need sleep, and I wanted to train alone. It’s better that way, I don’t have to watch out for others getting hurt.” She got back up and grabbed the phone and was about to stop her music again when Spider-Man shot webs at it and pulled it away from her hand. She glared at him. “Why would you do that?” Eclipse snapped.

“Because, we need to be getting back. I don’t want to get in trouble, again, and I have no idea what Fury would do to you.” He walked over to Eclipse and tugged on her arm in an attempt for her to come with him. It failed. Eclipse pushed her power into her feet so that she could not be budged. Spider-Man yanked harder before stopping with an exasperated noise. “You know, this isn’t going to help your case if we get caught.”

“I don’t feel like going back. I can be productive tonight and still be wide awake tomorrow. You seem to forget that I basically slept for a THOUSAND YEARS and then you drugged me for the better part of a day, so I’m quite good, thank you very much!” Eclipse argued.

“I never said you had to sleep, you just have to follow the rules by not sneaking out!” Spider-Man was irritated and Eclipse just gave up and walked out of the room rather than continue the argument. She made a mental note that she would need to brush up on her people skills, because none of her actions so far were helping her case.

* * *

 

Once back in the dormitories, Eclipse curled up in her blankets and began to think. How had she managed to lose so much control when she was freezing those drones in midair? Perhaps it was because she hadn’t used her powers in a true, controlled way on a large scale like that for a while. It seemed like a reasonable explanation. She would just have to be more careful and watchful, possibly more watchful than she had ever been. The way that her guard had been dropped so completely in the past day unnerved her. But, then again, the more she was in this world, the more she adjusted to where she was, as if she had lived here her entire life.

All her thoughts cumulated with the idea that she was definitely not the same person that she was before she was crystallized. Eclipse felt worn and weak, yet at the same time, strengthened. Her mind felt unbreakable in a way she had never experienced before. Even if her memories were all skewed sideways, nothing in her head came across as out of place to a point. She assumed that it was those long years inside her own head that gave her insight on that front.

And yet, she couldn’t make her peace with anything that had happened. How was anything that had happened over the past few days even possible? No answer came to her. While she would never admit it to anyone, Eclipse had the feeling that her presence here was going to cause lots of people grief. That cracking she had felt earlier that day felt exactly like her own home when the people there had gotten ahold of the other eternity crystals, the one’s so similar to what gave her her power. They had wielded them against her in an attempt to wipe her out of the universe. She knew it wasn’t because of something she had done, but she still felt guilty.

What surprised Eclipse was when she really looked at all of her emotions from the past days. She had been avoiding something, and now she knew what. It was mostly fear, but that was understandable, for her at least. Enigma, she remembered that the other one was called, did not need to be unleashed. But the other feeling was loss. She had been practically forced to seal herself in crystal because it was either that or feel her home be ripped apart with her at the center of it all. She had missed so much of life, and at the same time, none of it felt real. There was no possible way for her to be here, in her eyes. Eclipse couldn’t view her arrival here with happiness, not really. She was well and truly traumatized by what had happened at her own home that she felt she could never talk of it. Even if right now what she remembered of it was fleeting memories.

Those thoughts kept going on and on for the entire night, until Eclipse managed to shove them away to the deepest part of her mind she could find. She had other things to focus on. The morning came slowly and all too soon. Drones came in and buzzed everyone into wakefulness. Eclipse got up with everyone else and followed everyone in their sleepy state to get food. Thankfully, no one paid her any mind and she sat as far away as she could from everyone. Peter’s language knowledge was starting to fade, but by now, she had a good enough grasp on what she was saying that it wouldn’t be too much trouble. A bell rang from up above and everyone walked out of the room to a machinery lab.

This didn’t appear to be a structured class, but rather a chance for those more technologically inclined to tinker around and modify their gear. Eclipse felt comfortable enough with the knowledge she had borrowed from Shuri to tinker abit with her own weapon. A full deconstruction of it would take time she didn’t have, but even if she made no modifications, it would give her a chance to learn about all the tools.

Interfaces and screens pulled up in front of Eclipse and she stared intently at them, slightly unsure of what to do. She really would appreciate it if someone would come over and explain everything, but she wasn’t sure how to ask. The only reason she had been so up front and bold earlier was because there were very few people around and she had pressing questions. Learning actual social skills moved to the top of Eclipse’s long list of things to do.

Eclipse’s head snapped up when she felt a strange sort of buzzing coming from the other side of the room. She knew none of the others could feel it because it was a vibration that she had come to associate with electronics. That had been especially clear when the wireless headphones were connected last night due to the fact that the buzzing had practically been in her head. Her spatial awareness extended past solid objects and powers, as she was starting to learn. These new buzzes were quite confusing, but she knew, that given time, she would be able to tell what their meaning was and the differences between signals.

It was Iron Spider, of course it was, who was the one sending out the buzzing signals. Eclipse had two options: walk up to him and ask him to stop or push back with her own power so he would stop messing with her. She chose the latter. Perhaps it would teach him a lesson so he would leave her alone and treat her like a normal person, not a threat that needed to be analyzed without consent.

Her mental reach into the same plane at the vibrational signals felt jumpy and disconnected. She nudged gently at first and then gave a hard shove to the signal. And then another oddity happened. With her mind slightly disconnected from her body, she didn’t have great perception about what she was doing. It was similar to the flicker that had occured when her teleportation was off, and yet it wasn’t. Eclipse’s power acted as if it was copying whatever the signal was, but for whatever reason, the signal was pulling her own body onto that same vibrational plane. She attempted to pull her mind out of those signals, but she couldn’t.

Iron Spider changed his casting signal when he realized that Eclipse had begun to explore it. Whether or not he saw her flicker, she wasn’t sure, but she did know that once that signal changed, her mind was pulled out of its stream. This left her with even more to ponder, but for now she wanted to examine the state of her weapon, so she did. Her thought jumpiness surprised her a bit, but she brushed it off as having more input from the world around her that she was used to. Her focus kept skipping around, even after the lab time was over and continued for the rest of the day. Eclipse’s training was restricted that day because she didn’t want to cause more doubt among the students and fighting in an unfocused state was a recipe for disaster.

That night, while the others were asleep, Eclipse snuck out to the roof again and meditated. The moderate silence, the brightness of the moon and stars, and the cool air helped steady her thoughts. Most of her night was spent out there, but she was driven in because of the chilliness. More adaptable clothing also moved up on her list. The more heat she could have available to her when the weather got cold, the better. She had no intention of freezing. She would’ve loved to ask Shuri about it, but she had left for Wakanda that day, saying that her brother needed her back to continue to spearhead their technological advancements. Eclipse supposed that she could start digging around in all of the resources available to her at the Academy in order to construct a suitable design for a new suit.

Mundane thoughts like those were what she honed in on, not the creeping darkness at the shadows of her mind. Was she deliberately avoiding something in particular? Eclipse didn’t know. But the darkness was definitely newer, so perhaps it was a lingering effect of being in crystal. She had poked at that darkness once or twice during the night, but every time she did, it sent a panicked sort of chill down her spine. Eclipse had no way of knowing if Enigma, as the other power in her head called itself, could create such things past that mental wall, but it was better to steer clear of the blind panic in general.

Once back inside, Eclipse let her mind sink into the warmth of the blankets on her bed and pull her thoughts out of that frigid darkness. Really, no thoughts accompanied the darkness, just a cold feeling of dread and of being forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta love lack of social skills. This chapter might have some confusing bits in it because I haven't explained what they mean yet. I promise, once the explanation comes, it will all make more sense. So, here is more to look up if you are confused on some of the combat. For Eclipse's glaive, which is the weapon I drew with her on chapter two, look up Impa's naginata from Hyrule Warriors. Many of the moves there will be used in my own way of explaining, but that should help on what it looks like and how it moves. I know, more Hyrule Warriors, but the game has great combat and a large variety of fighting styles, so it's great to take inspiration from. Let me know if you have any questions and I can't wait for the next chapter to come out!


	4. Subzero Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is supposed to be a simple S.H.I.E.L.D. training survival exercise turns out to be something that Eclipse fears most. Cold. And cold is very bad for her, but is a prime advantage to seize for Enigma, who comes back with a vengeance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter's here! This is a more lengthy chapter than others, but character development for Enigma is finally introduced. I really hope you all enjoy reading!

Two weeks had past at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy before things started to shake up. Eclipse was on her sixth night without sleep, but she couldn’t will herself to drift off and get much needed rest. As a result, her powers were almost completely drained from the use, meaning she couldn’t pull the collective energy of those around her to keep her strength up. But try as she might, true, deep sleep would not come. The dark tendrils wrapped around her, silencing her, cutting off every hope of light and warmth and life.

Eclipse flailed wildly around before smacking her hand against the wall, jolting her back into reality. The darkness of her mind loosened its grasp, while the darkness of the room closed in. Panic blinded her along with the darkness as she fell out of her bunk to the floor to search for a light. The darkness and the silence was suffocating her. She couldn’t go back to being alone! Not again! No more darkness and wandering for something that didn’t exist anymore! Surely death would. . . would.

All thoughts came to a skidding halt when fissures materialized in that mental barrier in her head. More panic swamped Eclipse and she was reduced to a quivering heap on the floor. The only thing that kept her grounded was the solid floor beneath her. It was the only thing holding up that wall in her head. The floor was something she could reach out and touch, something she could run her hands across and feel that she was still in control.

The lights in the room flicked on. Eclipse could tell by her internal clock that it was most definitely NOT time to wake up. She did gladly welcome the light, however. It ran off the shadows in the room. Thankfully, no one jumped to their feet when the brightness invaded. She was able to haul herself back on top of her blankets to make it look as if she had been asleep. Spider-Man was the only one who knew of her tendencies to not sleep, which was good. The less people she confused, the better.

Agent Coulson, who Eclipse had later found was the one who mostly ran the Academy, strided into the dormitory. He was the one who oversaw most of the general training, but because Eclipse had been more restrained on her public training, she doubted he knew much about what she could really do.

“Everyone up. Meet in two minutes on the landing pad outside in front of one of two quinjets. Don’t be late.” That was it. Concise and to the point, which is how he always was. This time, Eclipse exited her bunk in a graceful fashion, one that didn’t involve falling. She followed everyone outside. There were two quinjets, as Coulson said there would be. She waited until almost everyone had assorted themselves into teams before she joined one. Hers included Miles, Scarlet Spider, Iron Fist, White Tiger, Spider-Man, and Nova. She stood off to one side, standing closest to Iron Fist. Eclipse had noticed over the past weeks how calm he always was, and he gave off that aura. His own energy, which he explained within her first week at the Academy, was a mystic energy that all life forms had. He used it to keep him focused and to assist in his fighting technique. He also meditated in the dorm before lights-out, so Eclipse would occasionally join him.

“Why in the world have they gotten us up at a DISGUSTING hour?” That was Scarlet Spider. Leave it to him to voice the negative opinions. Eclipse agreed with him. False dawn hadn’t even broken yet. She had begun to find Scarlet’s outlook on things both humorous and relatable.

“Don’t think of it that way, Scarlet! It’s um. . .” Spider-Man struggled with coming up with something good about the situation.

“A team bonding exercise?” Miles supplied. Nova, Scarlet, and Eclipse all collectively groaned at this. Eclipse did not want to work with anyone. Scarlet felt the same and Nova probably groaned because it was early.

“Really, they’re doing this now?” Nova asked. “Why can’t they get us up at a normal time and then have us play beach games? That would be so much more fun. And less likely to get us killed.” Eclipse did not miss the slight tilt of his head toward her as he said that last part.

“You wanna go, Buckethead?” Eclipse challenged. But it was a weak and mostly empty challenge. She was too exhausted. The nickname was one that Spider-Man used and it had caught on.

“Open-mindedness is a virtue. You should consider investing in it, not just about the situation, either.” Iron Fist commented. He stepped back ever so slightly to stand next to Eclipse. She appreciated the gesture.

“Will you all stop it and pay attention? Coulson just showed up.” White Tiger said. Her statement was heard by the other group as well. They too, shut up.

“This is a team training exercise, so thank you for dividing yourselves up. Each team will board a quinjet and the autopilot will take you to your destination. While the end goal is to obtain a set item which will be disclosed to you all on the way, this is mostly a test to see how well you all can adapt to different environments. Once you have retrieved your item, make your way back to the jet and come back. There are no benefits to being the first back and you all are looking for different items, so there is no reason to interfere with the other team. Am I clear?” Coulson questioned. Eclipse guessed that when left to their own devices with something like this that the students tended to pull pranks.

“Yes, Agent Coulson, sir!” Spider-Man said with a slight mocking tone. Coulson just rolled his eyes and ordered everyone on the jets. Eclipse marveled as the jet took off, it was an interesting sensation. She sat down in the back and closes her eyes, hoping to get some rest before they arrived at their destination.

“So, let’s see where we’re going to.” White Tiger made her way over to the control panel at the front. The jet was on autopilot, so none of them had seen where they were headed. She tapped a button and a navigational screen pulled up. It showed a map with a blinking line on it. She zoomed in on the end of the line and examined their destination. Miles leaned in to see better.

“Okay, I take back what I said earlier. I think just Coulson hates us.” All of the excitement was gone from his voice.

“Shove over, I wanna see.” Nova butted his way in to see the map. “Why, in the name of all the stars, would Coulson, or maybe it was Fury, who knows, send us to the Himalayas for a training assignment?” Nova cried in outrage.

“Really? I know it’s still summer, but jeez.” Spider-Man commented. Scarlet Spider groaned even louder this time, while Iron Fist looked excited.

“Perhaps we will have time to visit K’un-Lun after we have obtained this item. Speaking of which, what exactly are we searching for?” Iron Fist inquired. White Tiger exited out of the map and pressed a button that had begun to flash. A new screen popped up. The image of a silver box appeared along with a written message. She read it out to everyone.

“Here is the object you are set to find. Inside the box, a tracker had been placed so you can follow its signal, but no map will be formed. Find the box within 24 hours and then return to the Academy. Remember, the goal of this training exercise is not to find the box, but to see how well you can adapt to new environments.”

“Ugh, how much longer until we get there? The sooner we get this started, the sooner we can leave.” Scarlet groaned again and then leaned back against the wall of the jet.

“Um, according to the nav computer, another hour and a half. This jet is really fast, but not that fast.” Spider-Man said. Eclipse heard how long it would take and then settled back in an attempt to get some rest.

* * *

 The rumbling of the jet sitting down woke up Eclipse. She gazed around the jet to see everyone waiting by the door. She got up and walked over to them. The door opened and her eyes were met with white wind and fog with mounds of snow on the ground. A mountainous, frozen wasteland. An icy gale whipped through the jet, sending her reeling back from the door. Her hair changed to a bright, icy pale blue as she shivered.

“C’mon, let’s get started!” Miles grabbed Eclipse’s exposed arm and dragged her out of the, now less warm, jet. Goosebumps spread down her arms and she sneezed with the cold. She made the unwelcome discovery that she was the only one with any large part of skin exposed to the elements. Everyone else had at least something blocking the wind on.

“You are too excited about this. Did someone find the signal yet? I don’t want to be here any more than I have to.” Scarlet snapped.

“Hold on a moment, will you? I’m locking on to it now.” Spider-Man pulled up a display from his communication device, showing their location and a red dot at the edge of the circle. “Got it, it’s that way.” He pointed North-East and started off.

“I think Fury gave us this assignment as punishment,” Nova said.

“You know, the more you two argue, the more likely I am to leave you here,” White Tiger observed calmly. They had all fallen into a single-file line with Spider-Man at the front and Eclipse at the back. She continued to shiver with the freezing temperatures.

Eclipse was very glad that she had gotten some rest, otherwise she wouldn’t have lasted long out in the cold. That rest had restored some of her power reserves, which worked on repelling the cold her body was trying to copy. Slowly but surely, however, those reserves began to run out and her body temperature started plunging downward. The icy blue of her hair, representing cold, began to shimmer and Eclipse was struggling to keep herself upright.

The cold fought its way in and Eclipse could feel herself slowing down, freezing over as her body pulled in the subzero climate. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned to her that they were doing this assignment in the snow? This was the worst possible place for her to be. Her body continued to grow colder as her very blood froze in her veins.

“H-how-w m-muc-ch fa-arth-her?” She chattered out in a weak voice. No one heard over the howling wind. They seemed to be nearing their destination because every few meters, they would stop and look around. Eclipse backed herself up against the wall of a cliff and slid down it into the snow. Completely surrounding herself with the cold was a very stupid idea, but her literally frozen legs couldn’t support her weight and she was afraid they would snap clean off. Ice crystals formed on her fingers as she toppled over to be completely lying down in the snow.

She could no longer move. Almost all of Eclipse’s entire body was now solid ice. Her vision froze over and she cursed this emulation power. Sure, it had its uses, but turning her into an ice block when in a cold environment was definitely NOT one of them. That was her last thought as her mind froze.

* * *

Just a little farther, and then he would have the box and they could head back to the jet. Peter was very glad that his suit came in with a built-in heater. The Himalayas, even in summer, were quite cold. He saw the box up ahead and lunged for it. He nearly knocked it off the cliff, but caught it just in time.

“We did it!” Miles cried out, his voice carrying over the wind.

“And it only took us all day to do it.” Scarlet grumbled.

“Can we go back now? I think my fingers are going to fall off.” Nova complained.

“Oh drop it. You’re fine. You’ve been in space and such. Stop being annoying.” White Tiger commented. She was quite done with Nova’s antics.

“Embrace your surroundings, the sooner you do that, the less you will fight against it. Also, your constant protests are driving me up the wall.” Iron Fist said calmly. “We have obtained what we were sent here to get. We should return before another blizzard comes.”

“There’s going to be another one?” Peter asked. Iron Fist nodded. “Well, let’s get moving. The sooner we make it back to the jet, the sooner we can leave.” He pulled up his scanner, locked on to the jet, and set off. The others followed him.

“This exercise was pointless. What is the point of sending us into a blizzard if we all have gear that can help us with the cold? All we did was walk around in the snow to find a box with nothing in it.” Scarlet growled. They all past the spot where Eclipse had frozen, not even seeing her. She was now mostly covered in the falling snow and her icy skin hid her from easy view.

“I choose to think of this as a test of following orders.” Miles thought out loud. “And to get us used to having to do strange things for missions.”

“You’re optimistic,” Nova commented.

The trip back to the jet was much quicker than the trip out, due to the fact that they knew where the jet was and didn’t have to follow a compass to find it. Everyone boarded and Peter did a headcount. One, two, three, four, five. Six including himself. Weren’t there supposed to be seven of them? His eyes widened as he looked around. Eclipse was missing. He sprinted out of the jet again.

“What are you doing, Spidey?” White Tiger asked.

“OhmygodweLEFTHEROUTTHERE!!” He said, slightly panicking with worry.

“Excuse me, what now?” The rest had come to the edge of the door as White Tiger spoke.

“Eclipse, she is still out there. This is so awful. I can’t believe that I left a teammate! It’s all my fault. I can’t believe I didn’t notice before!”

“We’ll find her. Be glad that we noticed now and not when we were back at the Academy. You’re lucky that I know these mountains so well from my years of training.” Iron Fist led the way back out. He could occasionally stop and look around, but he kept moving.

“Why are we even looking for her? What if she ran off because she didn’t want to stay?” Scarlet Spider didn’t blame her if she did. These people could be annoying and they tried his patience.

“C’mon. We wouldn’t leave you behind. . .” Miles started before he was interrupted.

“Even if you should.”

“Point being, we don’t leave anyone behind. Would she leave you behind?” He asked.

“Yes,” both Nova and Scarlet replied at the same time. They were both experienced with the dislike and avoidance of people that Eclipse possessed.

“Ok, bad example. But we’ve been over this, Scarlet. Teammates are important.” Scarlet muttered under his breath at Miles before they continued to search on. They all followed Iron Fist as they made their way back along the path.

“Spidey, why don’t you try tracking her? You can do it with all of us.” White Tiger observed.

“I would if she had anything to track. The problem is, she hasn’t been at the Academy long enough for us to give her an issued suit or something similar that we can track.” Peter explained.

“So we’re searching blind?” Nova asked. “Great.” Iron Fist motioned for them all to stop. They did and looked around. More snow had fallen, completely covering where Eclipse was.

“She’s close. There’s a life form nearby, but it’s aura is so similar to the snow that I can’t be sure where it is.”

“I’m searching for heat signatures, but I can’t find any.” Peter sounded concerned. They all began walking all over the area to see if they could find anything out of the ordinary. Miles started to feel along the cliff wall and eventually came across a snow mound that was more solid and icy than the others. He quickly brushed it away to discover Eclipse’s frozen form. He screamed and jumped back, the others running over.

“Okay, that is not right.” Miles pulled her out of the snow and Iron Fist looked her over.

“She’s alive, but her state is troubling. There should be no way that this could’ve happened this fast. Even without protective clothing, it takes a long time for a person to freeze completely solid. We need to get her back NOW.” Iron Fist usually didn’t give orders like that, but everyone agreed with him. Eclipse was carried back to the jet and brought to the Academy.

No one was really sure what to make of her state, but the common consensus was that she should be thawed slowly, to avoid any major damage. That being said, very few of the techs working at the Academy believed she was alive. Once her body had warmed some and blood was flowing, they couldn’t detect a heartbeat. If Eclipse was awake, she would’ve explained that was due to her powers mimicking the world around her, so therefore her body didn’t stand out through temperature or life-sign tracking. While technology like that hadn’t been used in her home world, those who had gained the other eternity crystals, including the life crystal, had attempted to find her with it. Therefore, she had adapted her body to be less noticeable in terms of a living being.

Iron Spider was the first of the other team to examine Eclipse’s state when she returned to the Academy. He was therefore the one to be assigned the task of developing a suit to help fight the effects of cold. Needless to say, he was less than pleased about it. But Peter kept asking him about it, so he did. What Spidey didn’t know, however, was that Iron Spider built in a tracker and a device that would drop the surrounding temperature around Eclipse. One could never be too safe with a contingency plan. He fixed to her immediately.

* * *

Eclipse’s mind was kickstarted, in a way, by her mental barrier shattering. The cold had frozen over that barrier and all Enigma needed to do was kick it down. Cold halted Eclipse, but not Enigma if Eclipse’s mind was mobile. The only reason it hadn’t come down earlier was because Eclipse had been putting her energy in keeping that wall whole. Unconscious tended to put a halt to mental capabilities.

Even though Eclipse possessed no recollection of her retrieval from the mountains, Enigma did. She bid her time until she had returned the Academy. After all, it was in close proximity to those power sources so similar to the eternity crystals that shaped her being. For Enigma was a partly a product of Eclipse’s own mind. She was a protection measure developed from the eternity crystal’s power to take over when Eclipse got too scared or cold to function. It just so happened, though, that Enigma now regarded everything in a twisted way, seeing everything as a threat as well as something beneath her that had to be neutralized and wiped out of existence.

Enigma broke down the barrier and took control. She felt her body stiff with ice and her vision was frozen over. As she sat up, the ice cracked off and she sent out a spatial push all around her to rid herself of the rest of it. She regarded the room around her, and to her great delight, some of Eclipse’s classmates were present!

They all gaped at her and her telltale white braid. Those who were present the first time she had appeared were also in the room. Good, at least they knew who she was.

“I fear that I wasn’t properly introduced the last time I paid you all a visit. I am Enigma. And you are all in my way. Lucky for you, though, you won’t be for long.” Her voice was Eclipse’s voice along with one that sounded deep within everyone’s skulls. Her cold eyes examined them before she teleported to the nearest one, Ms. Marvel, and performed a high side kick to her head. The hit landed and Enigma focused on completely draining her of her power. The strange energy flowed into Enigma and Ms. Marvel dropped like a stone as her power was drained off. Enigma would’ve continued until the girl was nothing but ash, but she had better things to do.

While Enigma could’ve used Ms. Marvel’s powers against the others, she felt the need to demonstrate her repertoire. She flipped to the side, and in the process, grabbed Miles’s arm, throwing him into the wall with a loud smack. Several of the others lunged at her, while she simply teleported out of the way so they would run into each other. In a swift motion, she ignited her sword to fend off energy blasts from Nova.

None of them were putting up much of a challenge on their own, but the amount of those present made the fight slightly more difficult. She wasn’t going to kill any of them right now, she was having too much fun to destroy everything at the moment. Enigma did, however, begin combining her powers to gain more of an advantage. She dashed forward in a sprinting motion, but she instead teleported right in front of Scarlet Spider and swung her blade upward in a cut that was meant to cut the enemy from waist to neck. To Enigma’s shock, he parried the blow with his own wrist stinger blades.

“You’re going to have to do better than that to stop me.” She told him. Whether or not her two-toned voice bothered him like it did some of the others, she didn’t know.

“Bring it on, punk.” He challenged.

“Gladly.” She did a quick 360° to the left in an attempt to catch him off-guard. That failed and she was blocked again. Enigma sensed the buzzing around Scarlet Spider whenever he attacked. It was fast, but she would have to be faster. She slid under his guard and came up inside it, pummeling his skull with the hilt of her blade. He staggered, but remained upright.

“Hold on Scarlet! I’m coming!” That was Spider-Man.

“I’ve got this! Back off,” Scarlet commanded. He jumped back and shot webs at Enigma’s feet to try and slow her down. Really, how stupid were these people? Even if they did catch her, as long as she could see, a situation like that was easily escapable through teleportation. But instead of escaping, she held her ground until Spider-Man was right behind her. Enigma backhanded him in the face and put her powers behind it, sending him flying across the room. Then she cut herself free before jabbing at Scarlet. He wasn’t fast enough to block her and her strike connected solidly with his right arm. He fell back and she jumped at him, kicking out with both feet to send him into the wall and make a dent in it.

“No one punches my friend and gets away with it!” Agent Venom yelled across the room. Tentacle-like black streams shot out from his back and flowed toward Enigma. She had no intention of letting those things touch her. She shifted her focus on her blade, turning it into a blade wavering with intense heat. She executed a precise, close-range upward slice, severing and burning the black streams. Agent Venom continued toward her, fist raised. Enigma considered her options before deciding on one that would effectively end the battle. Just when she was in striking range, she pushed herself off the ground with a little skip. She used her powers to shoot up above everyone before spinning, dive-kicking Agent Venom in the chest. That blow also sent out a spatial blast so powerful that it not only knocked everyone off their feet, it also knocked them out and shattered the windows.

“As much as I would love to stay and chat, I have other things to attend to.” Enigma told the unconscious students on the floor in a sweet tone. “ _Pathetic, every last one of them._ ” She growled in her own tongue. Now that the windows were completely open, she had an easy means of escape.

Once out of the building, Enigma surveyed the city before her. The Academy was cut off by a stretch of water, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t deal with that. Her attention was drawn to a relatively tall building with a glowing letter A on it. That was where the eternity crystal-like energy signals were coming from. A quick teleportation puts her at the edge of the city. This time, Enigma thought it better that her approach to the tower be unnoticed, so she turned invisible for the rest of her teleportation. Another observation of the tower told her that there was a large, open ledge part of the way down that she could gain access to the tower from. While she had less of an idea about where the energy signals were in the tower, that opening seemed like a good place to start.

* * *

The Avengers who lived in Avengers Tower were enjoying movie night on the common room floor, which opened onto the large balcony of the tower. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone played on Tony’s humongous flat screen, but very few were actually paying attention. Loki was reading a book while flopped over the back of a recliner, his entire upper half hanging off the back. Thor ate Pop Tarts while leaning against Jane and watching the movie. Darcy was flopped all over the floor in front of them with several blankets. Clint perched on top of the couch behind Natasha, who was examining one of her pistols. Bruce occupied one corner of the u-shaped couch while Steve and Barnes possessed the other. Steve had his head on Barnes’s lap and Sam did his best to pretend they didn’t exist. Wanda and Vision sat together, whereas Tony sat near Bruce. Neither Scott nor Hope were in the room at the moment and Pepper was still working. Those were the Avengers that stayed at the Tower, for the most part. Both Scott and Hope would stay for awhile and then leave, presumably to go take care of Scott’s daughter. Coulson would occasionally come and spend the night to check up on the spy kids, as Tony sometimes called them, even though he wasn’t an official Avenger. While there were other members of the team, they took residence outside of the Tower.

Tony got up and walked to the bar to make himself a drink, his first of the night. Which was surprising, really, considering the month he had been having. Too many questions and not enough answers. Plus, his anxiety over Peter’s well-being had kicked up again. No matter how safe the reports from the Academy made this new student, what was her name again? Eclipse. The reports about Eclipse showed her as stable, but Tony still had his suspicions. He felt it would be on him, again, if Peter got hurt. He was the one who had brought Eclipse to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Tony poured his drink. Barnes began to examine his arm, the one made for him by Shuri while he was in Wakanda being fixed of the Winter Soldier, for the thousandth time. Bruce shifted to a better position in which to sleep and Loki popped his neck before returning to reading. Thor grumbled about there not being enough Pop Tarts and Jane laughed at him. Wanda sighed and leaned into Vision while Natasha moved on to checking her stingers. It was nice and quiet in the Tower, other than the movie, but even that wasn’t too loud.

“Boss, we have a proximity alert on the tower.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. alerted Tony.

“What?” F.R.I.D.A.Y. didn’t call a visiting team member that and she identified specifically when there threats on the tower. Tony was about to ask her to clarify when the all the windows leading to the balcony shattered at once.

Loki fell backwards off of the recliner before picking himself up to examine the scene. Natasha was on her feet, stingers aimed at the window, the moment the noise started while Clint grabbed one of Nat’s pistols and joined her by her side. Steve sat up so quickly that Bucky didn’t even have time to move his arm, earning him a smack in the head with the metal arm. Steve winced and moved to stand near Sam and Barnes. Thor summoned Mjolnir from the table on the other side of the room. Tony hadn’t thanked Thor enough when he had started bringing his hammer into every room with him. It meant walls didn’t get destroyed every time he called it. The rest of the group managed to either get into a fighting stance or well out of the way in an orderly fashion. No mishaps there. They all looked around to find, nothing.

* * *

Enigma gave an invisible, savage grin as the ones in the room startled at the entrance she made. It was such fun to shatter glass like she had done back at the Academy. Her one regret was that her arrival wasn’t completely unannounced. She had felt some technological field surrounding the tower, so there was a good chance her presence had been discovered, if not recognized. She stepped into the large room, revealing herself as she did. She identified nearly all of those present, even when they weren’t armed for battle.

“Eclipse?” Tony asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Eclipse? Do I really look as pathetic as she does?” She questioned. She wasn’t asking for an answer.

“Then by what name do you call yourself?” The one called Thor asked her. Even if Eclipse hadn’t met them, she did know the names and code names of the Avengers, as they called themselves. Enigma considered how she should go about this.

“I am Enigma. I fear the last time we met I didn’t get to properly say hello. So let me try again.” While it was phrased as a polite comment, nothing about her tone made it seem that way. Some in the room looked startled, while others began to look angry.

“I don’t think she means the nice hello, Tony.” Bruce said from behind the bar.

“Yeah, I picked up on that.” Enigma gave a dry laugh at this.

“Oh good! That means you’ll be up for a little fun!” Enigma activated her sword and crouched down in a fighting stance with it at her side. Natasha was the first to recover, sending out a round of stingers in Enigma’s direction. Each bolt was deflected and Enigma ran forward, ready to attack Natasha when she was held back by someone’s grip on her arm. She turned to see Barnes attempting to restrain her with his metal arm. A quick teleportation put her behind him, where she kicked him in the back of the legs to send him to the ground. He was off-balanced by her sudden departure, so he fell quickly enough.

“We don’t have to fight, so can you tell us why you’re here?” Steve asked. He helped Bucky up off the ground. He didn’t get an answer. All that raced through Enigma’s mind was that need for the power stored in the tower. And these people were in her way.

A quick look inside at her power levels showed that Ms. Marvel’s absorbed power was fading. Sure, it lasted longer when taken like that, but Enigma hadn’t been holding on to it. Seeing no other options, she formed it into a huge energy beam that she fired off at Steve and Barnes. Eclipse couldn’t do anything like that, partly because she knew it would exhaust her and partly because she wasn’t fashioned from the eternity crystals. It opened Enigma up to more alternatives when fighting. Enigma had no regard of how this power usage affected her body. Her direct link to the eternity crystals meant that she could push this body until the breaking point before it really affected her.

Why she kept having to go over facts like that in her head, she had no idea. It was as if she was reassuring herself that she knew who she was. But that was besides the point. Enigma fired a pure gold beam from her right hand, sending the super soldiers flying back into the wall. She turned to see Tony with a red gauntlet on his hand and a blue circle charging up in the center. A quick teleportation saved her from being shot in the face with the energy. She spun around again to find Vision firing a gold laser from his forehead. Enigma blocked it and teleported next to him so she could begin to deal damage to his flank.

Needless to say, it was quite a surprise when her kick went straight through him, putting her off balance. The moment of weakness was not wasted. An elbow to the spine sent her crashing down to the floor, face first. Enigma growled at this. She hated being knocked down. She managed to sight the rear of the room where she would have a wall at her back and teleported there. Slowly, she examined the Avengers. They had such interesting powers. All their abilities were truly remarkable and she couldn’t help but marvel at them. Tony walked out from behind the bar toward her. His suit began to form up around him, turning him into Iron Man.

“Okay, put the sword down and we won’t attack you.” His voice sounded deeper when it emerged from the suit.

“But who says I won’t attack you?” Enigma practically finished her statement as she appeared in front of Iron Man. It was strange to have to start a phrase, only to stop it because those being spoken to couldn’t hear it and then start again. She clutched the right arm of the Iron Man suit and began to pull power from it. A sparking sensation filled her chest and the gold eternity crystal turned blue for a breath. Iron Man stumbled as she let go of him.

“No one attacks Brother Tony!” Thor yelled, charging Enigma. She grinned at him. That sparking energy pooled in the center of her chest and in her hand. She raised it, firing off an energy beam at Thor. Several of the Avengers stared at her, dumbfounded. Thor took the hit, but it didn’t knock him down. He kept running and swung his hammer at her. Enigma was too preoccupied with studying the electricity running through her to react. Of course, she sensed him there, he had entered her field of awareness, but it hadn’t registered, even with her fast reaction time.

The hammer smacked Enigma square in the chest, knocking the wind from her and rocketing her clear out the now empty window panes. Pain didn’t exactly register with Enigma, as her conscious and such were more closely tied to the eternity crystals, but she could definitely feel the hit. She managed to right herself midair so she could now see the ground. She aimed for the pool and landed on its surface, skidding along the water with one hand dragging in front of her to slow her progress. Water sprayed out from behind her with all the momentum she created.

Water rippled around her feet with a silver shine as she stood. It was time to stop fooling around and finish this. A truly dangerous look entered Enigma’s eyes as all the Avengers emerged from the tower. Not all of them were suited up, but they all now possessed their primary weapons. A surprising amount of them had guns and other projectile weapons.

“Will someone please just knock her out already?” Iron Man asked in a slightly humorous and sarcastic voice. “She’s causing lots of property damage.”

“Of all the things happening and you’re worried-hey! That’s so cool! Look Tasha! Look at the ripples!” Hawkeye jumped from being serious to Iron Man to being utterly fascinated with Enigma’s water walking.

“Clint, focus.” Black Widow chided, attempting to draw the distracted archer’s focus back to the task at hand.

“Really, archer?” Loki questioned. “Of all the things to focus on, you focus on that?”

“Ooh, burn!” Iron Man commented.

“Guys, we have bigger things to worry about. So can we please stop arguing?” Captain America ordered. He now possessed his shield, even if he wasn’t in uniform. He held it in a way that he would be able to block anything that Enigma sent his way. But at that moment, she wasn’t planning on firing anything at them. Rather, she planned on targeting one individual in general. Loki. He was the one who had managed to halt her before, if only briefly. And now that he’d had time to prepare, he would be even more dangerous.

“Your effort was valiant, but it’s best that you surrender now. We have you surrounded,” Thor observed. While that wasn’t exactly the case, seeing as there was empty air to Enigma’s back, her front and top were covered by the Avengers.

Enigma toyed with her sword, spinning it in lazy circles with her wrist as she thought. The tip of it broke the water’s surface, sending more ripples over the pool. Speed would be her best option. If she could immobilize the other Avengers, then an opportunity for her to directly attack Loki would open.

“Either you stand down or we attack. Make this easier on yourself,” Captain America said.

“Are you trying to appeal to her better nature?” Black Widow inquired. Barnes smothered a smile. Enigma wondered if someone had tried to do the same to him.

“Are you done yet?” Enigma questioned. All attention turned to her standing on the pool. She gave her sword and experimental downward swing, sending water spraying behind her. It was time to finish this. Some of the Avengers looked as if they wanted to respond, but she didn’t give them a chance. Her left hand shot out and up, sending them all flying into the air. Falcon didn’t fly any higher, but he was put off balance. She brought her hand down quickly, slamming it onto the top of the water. All the Avengers smashed into the ground. They were all either dazed or knocked out. Either way, they wouldn’t be able to go after her for a time.

The only one left standing was Loki. Enigma had done that on purpose, wanting to fight him one-on-one. Apparently he noticed that he was being targeted specifically. His green, black, and gold armour had appeared on his form as he had exited onto the balcony. A gold headband-like helmet with swooping, curved horns left his hair exposed. Enigma found it impractical.

“Whatever game you’re playing, mortal, I would drop it.” Loki cautioned. His piercing emerald eyes attempted to bore holes into Enigma, but she paid them no mind.

“Oh, this is no game. I have a score to settle with you,” she said frankly. If Loki looked surprised, Enigma couldn’t tell.

“Looking for a rematch? Darling, your abilities don’t even begin to scratch the surface of what I can do.” Loki replied. He thrust his hands out to each side of himself, a long knife appearing in each hand. Enigma raised her eyebrows. He walked to the edge of the pool.

“Brother, stop this madness! You are walking right into her trap!” Thor tried to talk sense into Loki, who wasn’t listening. He raised one of his knives to point at Enigma. Thor started to come to his feet.

“No interferences!” Enigma snapped at Thor. Another flick of her left hand sent him into the ground again. She turned her attention back to Loki. Her senses registered the magical that began to pool around him. Enigma’s senses returned to their normal range, an arm’s length in every direction. She had focused, causing her sword to flicker because some of her attention had been drawn away from keeping the blade present, sending her awareness out to Loki.

“Listen well. This will only bring death upon you, but if it is death you crave, then you shall have it!” Loki launched his knife at Enigma. She pivoted to the left, letting the knife speed by her head. She pulled the hilt of the knife through the air to catch it in her left hand. After a spiraling side twist, she send the knife flying back to Loki. He snapped his fingers and the knife vanished inches in front of his face.

“Was that all?” Enigma criticized. “ _If that is all the power you possess, then I’m surprised you could best me before._ ” She added in her own language. Her deep, black eyes trained on Loki in an attempt to see what his next attack would be, but none came. Then she noticed the amount of magic gathering around him. She began to run forward to stop him when his magic spread to encircle them both.

Rainbow colors appeared and started to smear what Enigma saw. A glacial wind blew across her face and she felt herself lift into the air. She growled, pulling herself off the water and back onto solid ground. She sent her powers through the tower and latched on the power sources so similar to her own in order to keep herself grounded. That power’s copy filled her to the brim and began to duel against Enigma’s own eternity crystals. She felt her power begin to break down with all of it’s force it placed on her. She had to break free of their hold, but first she had to stop Loki.

An enraged scream ripped through her lips as a blast of pure spatial energy threw Loki off of his feet along with the Avengers that had managed to get to their feet. The blast was accompanied by a silver wave, a mark of her own power’s struggle against the ones in the tower. That blast also broke the hold of Loki’s spell as well as the copies the eternity crystals had made.

Loki scrambled up, but something was different. Enigma gaped at him. His pale skin was now an icy blue with markings or carvings on it and his eyes were completely blood red.

“Reindeer Games, keep her busy for me.” Iron Man managed to sit up from where Enigma had smashed him into the ground.

“Stark, what do you think I have been doing for the past few minutes? Drinking tea?” Loki gave a breathless retort. Enigma had used most of her strength fighting Loki’s spells and the powers in the tower, so she didn’t even try to push down Iron Man.

“Everyone who can stand, we need a perimeter established.” Captain America got to his feet and pulled Barnes up.

“Are you giving up?” Loki asked. Enigma gave no response, she just walked up to Loki to look him in the face. His red eyes stared back in a look of pure superiority. “Is that a challenge?”

“Just give me a minute!” Iron Man called out. Enigma used the brief moment of Loki looking over to switch her sword into a glaive and swing it head. To her shock, a wall of ice appeared right in front of his head to freeze the glaive in its tracks.

“What did you just do?” Enigma wondered, astonished. Loki grinned.

“Magic, dear,” Loki said with a smug air. “Or does that not exist in whatever pathetic world you come from? No matter, for my magic will be the last thing you see in this worthless mortal life of yours.”

“I am no mortal.” Enigma freed her glaive from the ice to sweep it at Loki’s feet. He froze it again, but this time Enigma pulled herself forward to teleport behind him. Her instantaneous change of position caused Loki to falter, but only briefly. He pitched forward, but caught himself in time. Enigma’s glaive lay useless in the ice without her powers to activate the blade. She was about to deliver a blow to Loki’s neck when it was turn to throw her off balance. He vanished clear out from under her and moments later, grabbed her waist in order to pin her arms behind her.

“Stark, whatever you are planning, I suggest you do it now,” Loki commanded.

“Done!” Iron Man exclaimed. Nothing happened. Loki groaned in annoyance and some of the others looked frustrated. It was that moment that Loki’s power began to effect Enigma. She struggled in his hold as her skin rippled briefly. Icy blue and strange carvings played across her features.

“Tony, you better have something better planned than just sitting there. We need to move _now_!” Black Widow emphasised from her place in the circle around Enigma and Loki. By now, all the Avengers had made it to their feet and joined Captain America in the perimeter.

“Don’t worry, Natasha. There’s a device on her to lower her surrounding temperature. Someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. placed it on her along with a tracker sometime today after the training exercise. I know you saw the report that came in,” he explained.

“It isn’t working!” Barnes observed. It was true.

“If my calculations are correct, which they are, the lower temperature combined with Loki’s Frost Giant powers will freeze her in her tracks.”

“You better hope they are because we don’t need her wrecking any more havoc. And I, for one, don’t want to be slammed into the ground again!” Falcon called out from up above. Everyone’s attention was pulled to the grappling pair.

Enigma pulled her arm free and grabbed Loki’s arm. There was a gold flash, a sign that Enigma’s power was fading because the flash usually didn’t show. But this time, the flash was followed by blue spreading all up her arm. Then cold began radiating from the device on Enigma, causing the arm to freeze and the blue to spread to the rest of her. Even though the temperature dropped, Enigma continued to fight on. The ice broke off and kept reforming.

“You’re plan and calculations were incorrect, Stark!” Loki growled.

“Trust me! It’s going to work!” Iron Man responded.

“At this rate, your plan will be completed in approximately one hour.” Vision supplied.

“Then I’m finishing this now. Thor, you need to hold her down. I need my hands free,” Loki commanded. Thor approached carefully, as to not be attacked or frozen. Loki jumped out of the way to let Thor place Mjolnir on top of Enigma. Thor set it down on top of her chest, effectively pinning her to the ground.

Enigma twisted and turned in an attempt to wriggle free, but to no avail. The hammer refused to budge. She concentrated next on teleportation, only to discover that her powers didn’t work. Nothing she tried worked. When she probed deeper into the magics on the hammer, she was now convinced that it was magic at work here, her discoveries showed an ancient power that she could, in no way, even with her unique emulation ability, alter or break free of. In her state of deep concentration, Enigma failed to register Loki approach from behind, spells ready.

Loki reached out to put his hands on each side of Enigma’s head and stared at her, her face upside-down from his angle. The blue color, the same as his own skin, Loki noted, once again began to spread across her face from their contact. He fixated on his spell, one designed to place the one cast on into a deep sleep, bringing up all the power he could muster. He kept some strength back, however. Just in case repercussions occured. He readied himself and shoved the spell with all his might into Enigma. She writhed at the pressure from his Loki’s hands and the pressure the sleep spell placed on her. Had it not been for Mjolnir’s presence on top of her, Loki was quite sure he would’ve easily lost several body parts, and not just from the bladeless glaive sitting in the ice. Loki’s mind raced at what could’ve gone wrong if the spell escaped. Far too many of them included his demise from the spell reverberating back to him and burning him up. He was too preoccupied with what could have happened that he didn’t notice what was happening.

As the spell forced its way into her skull, Enigma gave one last attempt at freedom. She mentally grabbed the spell threads that tied the spell to Loki and ripped them apart, casting them away from her. Those threads immediately dropped those they touched into a sleep. Falcon fell from the air once again, Black Widow stumbled into Hawkeye, and Thor’s eyes rolled up in his head as he fell backward. An extremely loud snore came from him. The rest of the threads were drawn to that power source in the tower. They latched themselves onto that power and began to feed off of their strength. Enigma grinned in triumph at Loki’s sudden look of fear. She never noticed the repercussions, but Loki did.

The moment he felt his spell intertwine with the infinity stones, he braced himself for the rebounded spell. Nothing good would come from a powerful, if shattered, sleep spell that was enhanced by the Space, Power, and Reality Stones along with whatever Enigma’s power was. The spell took in power from the infinity stones and then charged back toward Loki. Enigma sensed the many threads of the spell reunite, now modified by those power sources. The sheer force of the spell pressed in on Enigma, almost crushing her with the pressure it’s aura created. But again, try as she might, escape was fruitless. The spell roared toward the pair, and even though none of the others knew what it was, they felt it’s presence and backed away.

Loki, in one quick motion, managed to use the last reserves of his magic along with the assisted magical strength of a Frost Giant to redirect the spell quickly enough to be in his control. He slammed the spell through his hands into Enigma, not caring if it destroyed this mortal before him. ‘ _Why does it matter if she dies, she is dangerous and had no business meddling with me_ ,’ Loki thought. He gave a sly grin into Enigma’s eyes as they closed in sleep. Her hair slowly faded to black, but Loki gave it no mind. He had used nearly all of his strength between summoning the Bifrost to Jotunheim and casting a powerful sleep spell, only to have to redirect it in a stronger form. He sat back and breathed a sigh of relief and exhaustion before he forced himself to his feet again. Loki stumbled back into the tower to his floor, completely ignoring everything around him.

* * *

Enigma could feel the force of the spell as Loki regathered it in his hands, but she could do nothing about it. She could not stop the spell, not with it infused with an unknown, and extremely strong, power. Her weakness from stopping Loki’s earlier spell and from battling the strange power source left her mentally defenceless. The spell poured over her with such intensity that Enigma saw so much bronze, pain, in her vision. Sleep was not the way she would describe the spell. It felt as if doors were being slammed on all of her senses, like the strings that connected her to reality were being cut. It all happened at once. Those strings were cut and Enigma no longer had control over Eclipse’s body, or the power that was at Enigma’s core. Enigma also didn’t feel the wall between her and Eclipse. She felt nothing. She had no idea if she even existed any more. That was her last thought before the spell took full effect and she was shut down, in a way.

* * *

“Okay, what just happened?” Tony’s visor popped up, displaying his extremely befuddled face.

“Why are you asking us? Loki is the one with the magic like that.” Wanda responded. Her Sokovian accent had all but vanished after several years living with the Avengers and Vision.

“Good luck getting answers out of him. Did you see him? He looked like a sulking cat!” Clint joked.

“Well then maybe Barnes should go. You know, one supervillian to another? Get it?” Tony elbowed Clint, who swatted him away.

“Tony,” Steve cautioned.

“What! I’m kidding!” Tony looked around, but no one was laughing. “I hope this wears off soon for some of them. I don’t want to hear Thor’s snores tonight.”

“Mr. Stark, I have taken the liberty of contacting S.H.I.E.L.D. They will be here soon to pick up Enigma and take her back.” Vision informed.

“Thanks Ja-Vision.”

“I’ll stay out here and wait for Coulson.” Steve said. “There’s going to be a lot of explaining to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was chapter four! Don't worry, the next chapter picks up right after this one, but it will be awhile before it's up. This was the last pre-written chapter, so be expecting chapters a lot less frequently now. I just wanted to get these four posted right away. The next chapter will explain a lot about Eclipse and then things will make more sense, especially in how I am writing magic and how she feels. Also, since magic was never really explained in the MCU, I'm taking some creative liberties here, especially for Loki. His magic was never explored that much so I'm going off of what I feel like he could do as a character. 
> 
> There's more! So, there are some parts of the combat that I'm going to explain because I can picture what it looks like, but the wording might be funny. For this part here: 'She pivoted to the left, letting the knife speed by her head. She pulled the hilt of the knife through the air to catch it in her left hand. After a spiraling side twist', the left pivot and grab is the same one Cap does with Proxima Midnight's spear in Infinity War. The flip-twist is the same one Cap does a lot, but the best example I can think of is when he does it during the slow-mo shot in Age of Ultron in Sokovia. 
> 
> One more note: Loki's outfit is very similar to the one from Thor: The Dark World while his helmet is the one from Ragnarok. 
> 
> *Edit!* I changed my mind on Loki's outfit. It is the one from Ragnarok, the one he wears at the end, but it has more armor pieces. I kind of imagine some faded gold arm guards and a black and faded gold belt. This is so it adds more gold to the otherwise dark green and black aesthetic. But he still has the cape. Also, the helmets horns are smaller than they are in that movie. 
> 
> That's all! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	5. Explanations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eclipse wakes up and has some explaining to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, the new chapter's finally here! This one is actually longer that I thought it would be, but it all worked out. Hope you enjoy!

It had been three days since Eclipse had been moved from the balcony of Avengers Tower to a secure, cell-like lab at the Academy. She had yet to waken and Tony was seriously wondering if she was even alive. It had to do with the little to no heartbeat thing and her low body temperature. Shuri had been called back to the states to help out, seeing as she and Eclipse were friends. Peter helped, but at this point, there was little that they could do without more knowledge. So Loki was called in. His dislike for S.H.I.E.L.D. was plain and he wore a look a disgust as he walked into the lab.

“Stark, for what reason have you called me here that couldn’t be addressed at the tower, where there aren’t guns pointed at me the entire time!” Loki stated emphatically.

“I wanted to talk magic with you, but first, there are some people you should meet properly. This is Shuri, princess of Wakanda, and Peter Parker.” Tony indicated them.

“It is an honor,” Shuri said with a respectful nod. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Loki!” Peter’s voice cracked slightly at this, from nerves. Not that he was nervous about the situation, he just didn’t have Spider-Man to hide behind. He held out his hand, to which Loki stared at it.

“It’s nice to meet me?” Loki asked skeptically. Peter nodded. Loki shook the offered hand before turning back to Tony. “So why is it that you’ve brought me here?”

“This about that little sleep spell you used a few days ago. The other one’s hit by it have woken up just fine, but Eclipse here is still out cold. Literally. Did you kill her? We talked about this, Loki. You can’t go around killing people.” Tony said. The last part was said in a light tone, one meant for joking.

“No! For Odin’s sake I didn’t kill her. Though the energy I put in the spell was altered by the infinity stones in the tower somehow. That could account for why she is still in this state,” Loki explained.

“Is there a way to remove the spell?” Shuri questioned. “We currently don’t have anything developed to counteract magic, seeing as we don’t possess any. Eclipse is the only one I’ve ever met who can stop it like she does, based on what I’ve been told by others.”

“Who is this ‘Eclipse’ you speak of? That being that attacked us at the tower called herself Enigma.” Loki wanted to know. Tony hadn’t really bothered in keeping everyone up to date with her goings on. The moment he arrived back from the tower, from anything, he disappeared into the lab. This left the Avengers in the dark and completely unprepared for when Enigma had come calling.

“Well, here’s the thing,” Peter started. “We don’t quite know. It’s not like Eclipse has ever really talked about anything to us. The most we’ve gotten is a brief power explanation and how old she is.”

“Hmm. I had planned on letting the spell remain. Serves her right for attacking me, but this has piqued my interest. I shall remove my spell for you, but if all goes awry, I will not hesitate to place the blame on you,” Loki declared. Peter looked slightly horrified and Tony walked over to stand behind him. The look shot Loki’s way said ‘if you scare my kid again, I will put you through the worst hell imaginable.’ Loki smirked slightly before he waved his hand to remove the spell. They all walked up to the glass separating them from Eclipse.

* * *

 

Eclipse slowly rose from the inky darkness of sleep, her head feeling all disconnected. She cracked an eyelid and was met with a bright, electrical light shining in her face. Which was strange, seeing as there was no light like that in her bunk. She slowly reached for her senses, wanting to extend them to find what was going on, only to find the ties that connected her to her powers were all loose.

She shot up into a sitting position, full wakefulness sending waves of fire down her entire body and along those ties, tightening them. The unfamiliar sight of a closed-in room met her eyes. There were no furnishings other then the bed she laid on. Eclipse started quickly, tumbling off of it and nearly hitting the floor. At the last moment, she teleported away, which placed her in a corner with her back pressed up against it. Her braid turned a bright yellow with shock and confusion. She took some deep breaths and looked around to find a window out of the room. Not to the outside, but out of the place that felt like she was being held captive in.

Figures stood outside of that window, watching her. Her vision slightly blurred from sleep and the lights, Eclipse couldn’t tell who they were. And if she didn’t know, that meant that they might mean trouble. She vanished from sight before she snuck up to the window to get a better look at them. It was Peter, Shuri, Tony, and Loki. While she hadn’t personally met the last one, Eclipse _had_ been forced to watch the events that played out as Enigma. She reappeared and looked at the ones behind the glass.

“Oh good, you’re awake!” Shuri’s voice didn’t come from where she was speaking behind the glass, but rather from the ceiling. Eclipse found it odd, much like she did other technology.

“Now if you could just sit down, we’ve got some questions.” Tony sounded slightly exasperated, as if he was on the verge of yelling at something or someone. Eclipse glared at him, an annoyed red-orange picking stripes along her now black hair.

“So have I,” she shot back. “First, where am I?” Eclipse backed away from the glass slightly so she could get a better look at everyone. Peter glanced at Shuri.

“You’re at the Academy, in one of the containment labs,” Peter said. Containment labs. Containment. So they had seen what she could do and had locked her up. Her annoyance turned to rage, vibrant red replacing pale red-orange. What little trust she had shattered. She couldn’t believe that Peter or Shuri would allow this.

“That’s enough of that.” Loki waved his hand and straps that had been on the table Eclipse had been lying on sprang to life. She spun around to find them coming toward her through the air. Eclipse reached for her weapon, only to find it gone. Curse S.H.I.E.L.D. and their protective measures. In that brief moment of distraction, the straps snaked up to coil around her arms and legs, pulling Eclipse back toward the table. She grit her teeth before focusing on the magic tied to her.

She pulled herself out of her current reality and onto the Edge of Time. The magic attempted to remain tied to her, but she simply withdrew herself from the plane that the magic existed on, rendering it useless. Eclipse teleported outside the room, next to where the group was standing.

“Don’t you ever do that again, you understand me?!” Eclipse jabbed her finger in Loki’s face. “I’ve had enough of you magicing me recently and I swear to the gods above me! If you-” Eclipse was cut off.

“Yes, what are you going to swear to me?” Loki demanded. Eclipse stopped dead in her tracks, the anger slowly fading from her and her hair.

“What? You’re no god,” she scoffed. The trickster smirked at her.

“And how do you plan to prove otherwise?” Loki countered. “The last I recall, I was the one who defeated you, mortal.”

“I am no mortal. I have lived past what any mortal life could even begin to try and match.” Little did Eclipse know that her words were strikingly similar to what Enigma had said to Loki when posed with the same comment. She did however, get a strange sense of déjà vu. She ignored it for the time being.

“That would be how long?” Loki was extremely skeptical about this.   

“Longer than you,” Eclipse retorted.

“I seriously doubt that. Answer please,” Loki said smugly.

“Gods you are so annoying!” Eclipse shot him a glare before he could make another comment. “If you want to know, fine. My count is one thousand and seventeen.” Loki grinned at her, mischief and smug pride all over his face. Eclipse rolled her eyes.

“One thousand and sixty five. Looks like I’m older. And I lived all of mine, so experience adds age.” Eclipse wondered how he knew about her wakeful state throughout her years. If he knew how to read her bracelets, then he would know that she hadn’t been awake. She seriously hoped that her powers weren’t that easy to figure out, even for one as magically gifted as Loki.

“I’m just going to ignore you from now on. Tony, what did you want to ask me?” Eclipse turned to him.

“Oh nothing, just about that little stunt you pulled three days ago,” Tony said in a cheery tone. He grinned at her, but Eclipse didn’t find it funny. Loki walked around so he could face Eclipse. Her eyes turned cold and empty at the same time as she gave her answer.

“No,” was the forceful reply. Loki saw something similar in those eyes, something he had often seen in his own over the past years. Something he had seen in them ever since Thanos had captured, tortured, and brainwashed him into attacking Earth. They were the eyes of someone who was broken, not just in the body but in the mind. And Loki wasn’t the only one who got them. Bucky often got that way when someone mentioned the Winter Soldier.

“We need an answer, Eclipse,” Tony pleaded. “It’s important. We need to know so we know how to prepare if something like this happens again.”

“Really, you need to know? What, so you can lock me up again? So you can find a way to kill me when I do something S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t like? I noticed you took no time in containing me. Who’s to say it won’t be worse next time?!” Eclipse’s voice rose in pitch. Her cheeks became flushed in anger. Red and deep blue ran across her braid in waves. Rage and emotional distress; she was very distraught.

“Mr. Stark, perhaps you should let me handle this. After all she does trust me,” Shuri offered. She walked up to put a comforting hand on Eclipse’s arm, only to have her flinch away.

“If you think you can do better, be my guest. C’mon Reindeer Games, let’s leave them to it.” Tony all but dragged Loki out of the room, but he stopped briefly to talk to Shuri.

“I would like you to keep me informed of her condition. She has captured my attention and I am eager to know what you learn from her.” Loki commanded in a whisper. Shuri nodded. Tony and Loki left.

“Alright, they’re gone. Now will you talk to us?” Peter asked. Eclipse looked up at him, eyes a little pained.

“Peter, I-I’m so sorry about what happened.” Eclipse apologized. She was on the verge of tears. Shuri noticed and led her to one of the padded chairs at the back of the room.

“We know it wasn’t you, if that helps.” Shuri remarked, as if she was stating an obvious fact. Peter pulled over two other chairs so that they form a sort of circle with Eclipse’s.

“You don’t have to tell us all of it, but I feel like at least I have a right to know what happened to you. I mean, you did attack me.” Peter told Eclipse.

“I just really don’t want anything that I say to be turned against me. I can’t have that happen again,” Eclipse begged. Peter and Shuri exchanged glances.

“I’ll try my best,” Peter promised. Eclipse hoped it wasn’t an empty promise. She took some deep breaths to regain her composure, to calm herself down.

“Okay then, where should I start?” Eclipse asked them.

“How about with what happened on the training mission?” Shuri suggested. “Since that seemed to be where the problem started.”

“If only,” Eclipse muttered under her breath. Neither of them appeared to have heard. “My power of emulation, the one that allows me to copy other people’s abilities has some,” a pause. “Unwelcome side effects. I pull in the temperature of the environment around me. Hence why you always say it’s hard to tell if I’m alive or not based on body heat.” Both nodded in understanding.

“But that doesn’t explain why you turned to ice so quickly. We’d only left you for less than an hour. And, um, for the record, we didn’t mean to leave you,” Peter said quickly.

“I didn’t think you were going to come back, but that’s for later. Back to the story. So usually I’ve got enough strength in reserve to stop my power from pulling in the cold. That’s another downside of my power, it takes more strength for me to stop a copy of something being made than it does for me to make one.” Shuri looked thoughtful at this comment, but didn’t interrupt. Eclipse continued on.

“And on top of that, I haven’t been sleeping well, so my powers hadn’t really had the chance to recharge. I just couldn’t fight off the cold.” Eclipse told them.

“So that explains why you froze so fast!” Shuri exclaimed. “Your already low body temperature combined with the subzero climate around you, freezing your blood itself before you had a chance to react! Fascinating! Even when we put someone in cryo-freeze, it doesn’t occur that quickly.” Shuri started to get lost in her world of science before Peter nudged her arm, bringing her back.

“Do you even remember what happened afterwards?” Peter asked.

“Unfortunately, I do. Please, just be patient with me on this part? I’ve already told Peter a little about it, but this time I’ll tell you the rest. You really shouldn’t be kept in the dark any longer.” Eclipse sighed as she quieted her quivering hands. They had no idea how hard this was for her. From what she’d pieced together from her recovered memories, the last time she had told anyone about who she really was, they had tried to kill her. But at least with Peter and Shuri, she found someone she could relate to.

“Enigma is part of myself, and at the same time she isn’t. Originally, I had set aside a part of my mind to retreat to whenever I got so scared that I couldn’t function. It was a defence mechanism to help keep me alive if I ever got paralyzed with fear. My powers helped give this shape and allow me to completely step away from the world while something else helped me out.”

“So, like the Hulk and Bruce Banner?” Shuri took advantage of Eclipse taking a breath to ask.

“Um, I guess? But I can’t really confirm that until I know more about it. Anyways, Enigma was shaped from my eternity crystals as well as my own mind. It was all fine for awhile, but eventually she gained an actual conscious of a sort, one that wasn’t my own. We became two separate beings with different ideas. Even with this, Enigma was never that bad. But over time she became ruthless. Everything she saw was a threat that had to be wiped out. I think this comes from the time when I was always being attacked and trusted no one. Now that I really think about it, I really don’t know how she gained consciousness. It must’ve been from the eternity crystals.” Eclipse stopped for a moment. She pretended to ignore the worried glances that Peter and Shuri were casting each other.

“But still doesn’t explain why she wants to kill us,” Peter pointed out. Eclipse shifted uncomfortably and avoided looking at both Shuri and Peter. She was not looking forward the answer she was about to give. Luckily, it was put on hold by a song that started playing. Peter groaned and pulled out his phone, which was playing the song. He answered the incoming call.

“Peter! Where have you been? MJ and I have been wondering where you are. You said that you were going to come and hang out today, remember?” Came a male voice from the phone. From the angle Peter was holding it, he could see the faces of both the people on screen.

“Dude, now isn’t exactly the best time,” Peter said as a lame excuse.

“That’s so sad, Alexa play despacito.” A female voice deadpanned. Shuri flat out laughed at this. She leaned in close to Peter so she could see those on screen. Eclipse just sat there, confused and slightly annoyed at being interrupted.

“MJ!” Peter cried out.

“Don’t go blaming her, Peter. You were the one who _insisted_ on staying here the past couple of days,” Shuri noted.

“Oh, hey Shuri. So where exactly is here?” The male voice continued.

“Here would be at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy,” Shuri supplied.

“Peter, we talked about this. You can’t spend every waking moment there. Besides, you said that you wanted to come and help with the Scholastic Decathlon.” The male voice pointed out.

“Ned, I’d love to, but I just really don’t know if I can. Things kinda got crazy really fast here,” Peter explained.

“Does this have anything to do with that eclipse a month ago?” MJ asked.

“. . .yes.”

“Yes!” Both Peter and Shuri replied at the same time. Peter was much less enthusiastic about it than Shuri, who stated it quite energetically. Eclipse frowned slightly.

“Can you tell us about it?” MJ inquired.

“One second, let me check.” Shuri looked to Eclipse for an answer. She got an emphatic shake of the head as a reply. “Sorry, not this time.”

“Well, we’ve kinda get back to what we were doing, so I’ll talk to you guys later.” Peter waved at his phone before he put it up. “He just had to interrupt me,” he grumbled.

“Who was that?” Eclipse wondered.

“Oh, just my friends MJ and Ned from Midtown Tech, the school I used to go to,” he replied. Eclipse nodded, all motivation for continuing her explanations gone. Her hair had washed out to black again.

“So, Enigma,” Shuri proded. Eclipse sighed. Right back to it, she supposed. Shuri definitely wouldn’t let her leave until she had a clear answer. “You said before that she was created to help you with threats. Was she attacking us because she viewed us as a threat?”

“And besides, we’re your friends, right?” Peter sounded worried.

“Yes! You are definitely friends. Enigma just doesn’t see you in that way. Again, she sees you as a threat, so you have to be eliminated.” Eclipse hated having to tell this. Enigma frightened her, and that fear in turn sparked Enigma to try and take over.

“But if Enigma is part of you, don’t you have control over what she does?” Peter asked. “I mean, if she’s part of your own mind and something that you created, you should be able to have some control, right?”

“I guess that would be true if Enigma was just fashioned out of only me, but since the eternity crystals are also part of her being, she’s become completely separate,” she explained.

“Can you tell us anything else?” Shuri asked. “From what you’ve told us, part of Enigma’s consciousness comes from the eternity crystals, but is there something else that she feeds off?”

“I don’t think so,” Eclipse subtly lied. No one needed to know that Enigma fed off of Eclipse’s own hate, fear, and panic. Luckily, they both bought it.

“Okay,” Peter replied. “I’ll go check in with Mr. Stark and see if he needs anything else.”

“You aren’t going to tell him everything, are you?” she asked in a panicked voice.

“I should, but unless he asks specific questions, you should be fine.” Peter got up out of his seat and walked out the door. Eclipse watched him go warily. She sincerely hoped none of what she’d said ended up in the ears of those who would use it against her.

“You shouldn’t worry. Peter keeps his word,” Shuri told her. “Wait, before I forget, I had one other question. You were able to escape Loki’s magic earlier, and from what I’ve heard, magic can’t be countered unless the other person also has magic.”

“Well, I for sure don’t have magic. I’m able to feel or sense different auras and the like, including magic. Wait, can I have some string? It might be easier to show you what I’m talking about for this.” Shuri looked confused as she left the room. She came back several minutes later with a ball of twine.

“Will this do?”

“Mm-hmm.” Eclipse began wrapping the string around each of her fingers and then breaking them off so long string ends dangled from each wrapping. Shuri looked at her strangely, but didn’t stop her. Once every finger on her right hand had been wrapped, Eclipse held it up flat in front of her and used her powers so the strings were pulled taut out from her hand.

“I sort of think of magic and auras and the like like strings. We all are part of each plane, in a way, and even if we can’t sense it, it’s still something we’re connected to. I can feel them, which is how I’m able to feel magic when someone is using it or sense technological waves put off by computers.

“But it’s not just that I can feel it, I can also manipulate them, in a way. It uses a ton of power to do this, but I can pull myself out of the reality that the strings exist on. Watch.” Eclipse stared intently at the strings wrapped around her thumb, which she pulled free of the strings. Those strings remained in place, held there by her powers.

“Do you still exist outside of the reality once you pull yourself from it? Because from what you’re showing me, it doesn’t look like you do,” Shuri commented.

“I can show you a more definite answer,” Eclipse offered. Shuri nodded. “I’m not sure how well it will work. I mean I think the only reason I could do it earlier was because I had completely pulled myself out of all realities, not just the one Loki’s spell was in. That’s also how I teleport, by the way. Which is also why it’s immediate, now that I think of it.”

“So, how are you going to do this example?”

“Could you pull up, I don’t know, a heat signature scan of the room? I’ll still show up on it, even if I’m not warm.” Shuri did so and showed her the display. “Watch the screen,” Eclipse ordered. She reached out her senses and found the technological field surrounding the display. Instead of mentally grabbing the field’s threads, she pulled herself off of its existence place. It was difficult to do and still be in the present, not the Edge of Time, considering that her power still hadn’t fully recovered.

A few tries later, Eclipse succeed and she was no longer visible on the display pictured. She grinned at Shuri’s amazement before restoring her place in reality to normal. And then it happened again. A sort of phantom pain like the one that had happened her second day at the Academy. Again it felt as if this dimension was being split apart, but at the same time it didn’t.

Eclipse stared at her hands, wondering if her crystals were the cause of it. Nothing about them was out of the ordinary. But the pain still continued as bronze flashed over her sight along with her braid. She frantically searched with her senses to try and find the source of whatever was happening. All she found were fraying threads leading up into infinity, away from this place she now called home and into a fracturing place.

“Eclipse, are you alright?” Shuri was shaking Eclipse’s shoulder. Somehow, that brought her out of the pain and stopped whatever was happening to Eclipse. She sighed and looked around, but only Shuri was there.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I have literally no idea what that was,” Eclipse responded.

“Well, whatever it was, I couldn’t feel it. I do wonder where Peter is though. He’s been gone for awhile,” Shuri observed.

“I guess he has. Shuri, is there any way for me not to have to stay in there?” Eclipse jerked her head at the glassed in cell. “I can’t help but feel like I’m being held captive in there, even if I can escape. But at least there I have the option, unlike some places I’ve been in,” Eclipse noted darkly.

“I suppose so, but you just can’t have people see you.”

“That’s not a problem, remember?” Eclipse slowly turned invisible before reappearing. “But I really do need to sleep, on my own, without being forced to. And I can’t really hold my invisibility if I’m asleep.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. I can put a holographic screen in front of your bunk so it looks like you aren’t there. The only thing is, Fury will not be happy when he comes in here to find you gone,” Shuri explained.

“I know he’d wonder where I went, but why does it matter?” Eclipse asked.

“Because Fury likes to keep special watch on his most dangerous captives. It’s only thanks to me, Peter, Mr. Stark, and Agent Coulson that you’re here instead of being buried deep in some S.H.I.E.L.D. prison.”

“Why Coulson?”

“You’d be surprised how much faith he has in people and in his students,” was the answer given.

“Oh. I didn’t know that there were that many people like that anymore.” They began to walk out of the room.

“Listen,” Shuri said as she turned to face Eclipse. “I know for a fact that you’re hiding your past from us. And that’s fine, but you need to tell someone if it’s going to affect any of us. A surprising amount of people’s pasts come back to haunt them.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Eclipse said dryly. “It’s not like I’ve got the Death Star plans or anything.” Shuri snickered.

“I didn’t know you knew that! Did Peter have you watch Star Wars?” Shuri wondered. Eclipse gave her a confused look. The yellow on her braid matched her state of befuddlement.

“Um, no? I have no idea where that even came from. I mean, when I first copied Peter’s language knowledge, there was a TON of random quotes. But that’s all mostly gone away, so your guess is as good as mine.”

“Perhaps whenever you copied Peter’s powers again, it refreshed that part,” Shuri thought out loud. “Anyways, it’s a crime to reference something and not know what it references.”

“It is? Am I going to get in trouble again?” Eclipse started panicking a little, but not to the point where white even showed on her braid. Shuri laughed.

“No, no! I was kidding! But it’s about time you learned some pop culture and memes. I can’t believe you’ve been here for as long as you’ve been and no one thought to bring it up!”

“Hey, I’ve been doing pretty well everywhere else,” Eclipse said slightly defensively.

“And you have been, but this is important. Come on. Lets go round up Spider-Boy and find the media room. We can at least get through Episode Four before we can try to sneak you into the dorm again,” Shuri explained as they walked out of the room, Eclipse more confused than ever.

* * *

 They’d run into Peter in the halls and they all made their way to the media room. Shuri queued up the movie as Peter went and to go and get popcorn, he claimed. He returned minutes later with a huge bowl of it, which got put on the coffee table in front of them. They all piled onto the couch as the lights dimmed.

“So, why exactly does S.H.I.E.L.D. have a room like this?” Eclipse asked.

“I know, it doesn’t really make any sense, right? Agent Coulson set this up for team bonding among the students, but he and his team use it whenever they’re here,” Peter clarified.

“Oh, but are-” Eclipse was interrupted by Shuri.

“Will you be quiet? The movie’s about to start!” Shuri exclaimed in a pitched whisper.

“Sorry,” Peter whispered back. The extremely recognizable, but not to Eclipse, Star Wars main theme started and the opening scrawl began.

“Why are we starting with four, shouldn’t we start with one?” Eclipse whispered.

“No. Starting with Episode One when watching Star Wars is a sin. It goes Four, Five, Six. One, Two, Three. Rogue One. Seven, Eight, and then Solo. And between Two and Three, you watch all six seasons of Clone Wars, then you watch four seasons of Rebels between Three and Rogue One,” Peter tried to simplify. He succeeded in making Eclipse even more confused.

“You know, it would make more sense to her if you shut up and let her watch the movie!” Shuri accused. They both fell silent.

It wasn’t until the part where Luke was first shown the lightsaber that Eclipse made another comment. Or rather, a scoff. She started muttering to herself quietly and Peter was fairly sure he heard something along the lines of ‘mine is so much better’. Once he heard that, he laughed out loud. Shuri nudged him before reaching for the less full bowl of popcorn.

The movie continued on and Eclipse remained entranced the whole time. The story was so interesting and the music was fascinating. Comments were made by her companions throughout, whether it was explaining exactly what a movie was or observations about the actual film. The former was because no one had thought to exactly explain how movies worked to Eclipse before that point. Needless to say, she was slightly concerned when people were being killed on screen. In the latter group, the one that stuck out the most to Eclipse was when Peter and Shuri both shouted at the same time ‘HAN SHOT FIRST’ during the cantina scene.

Eclipse sighed with content as the credits started appearing. She hadn’t thought that her crappy start to the day could be fixed, but it had been. She had thoroughly enjoyed her time with Peter and Shuri. None of them had noticed when Iron Spider stuck his head in part way through and then leave just as quickly.

“So why is it that you claimed your lightsaber is so much better than the one in the movie?” Shuri inquired.

“For one, mine isn’t just a sword. I can change it into different weapons as well, which is helpful. And for another, it can only be wielded by me. My own power is what activates the crystal within my blade.”

“Cool! I knew the first part, but that’s really neat!” Peter nearly bounced out of his seat. “Gimme a second. I’m gonna go get something.” And with that, Peter ran out.

“Should I be concerned?” Eclipse wondered.

“Probably,” Shuri replied matter-of-factly.

“Good to know,” Eclipse said as she nodded.

“I’m back!” Peter exclaimed. He sprinted into the room and bounded over the couch to land in front of the pair.

“What exactly did you run out of the room to get?” Eclipse asked.

“Nothing, just this!” Peter waved Eclipse’s weapon high over his head.

“Where did you get that?”

“Nowhere,” Peter said suspiciously.

“Uh-huh, give it back,” Eclipse commanded. Peter handed it over.

“Now that you have it back, can you show Shuri how TOTALLY AWESOME IT IS?!”

“Sure, if you’ll move out of the way, Web-head!” Eclipse lightly pushed Peter off to the side. Peter in turn acted as if she’d punched him in the arm, rubbing it as if it hurt. Shuri rolled her eyes and pulled Peter back onto the couch.

When activated, Eclipse did admit that her weapon bore a striking resemblance to Luke’s lightsaber. Shuri’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the sight of it. Eclipse could tell that in a few moments, questions would be thrown at her from all directions, so she settled with a demonstration. A few simple sword passes were performed before Eclipse twisted her weapon’s hilt to turn it into a glaive. The hilt lengthened into a long staff and the blade shortened and curved. Eclipse spun it hand over hand a few times, moving it from side to side, and then behind her back. In the end, she finished by tossing her spinning glaive in the air and catching it to whip it around in a crescent. Shuri and Peter both applauded. And then someone else in the back of the room joined in. All three of them turned around to find Iron Spider.

“Good job, Spider-Man. You just let someone in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top ten most dangerous threats out of their cage. I hope you’re proud of this because Fury is going to kick you out for this, no matter what Iron Man says.” Iron Spider crossed his arms. None of them had any idea as to what his face expressed, seeing as his face plate was down. 

“I’m sorry, but who asked for your opinion?” Peter asked. Eclipse had no idea his voice could turn that cold. “Last time I checked, this threat here,” Peter gestured to Eclipse, who held her glaive in a fighting stance. “Explained herself with valid reasons. And upon seeing that, her actions are forgivable.”

“Well ‘this threat here’ tried to kill us all!” Iron Spider retorted.

“Only because we LEFT HER in a situation where she had no choice but to change into someone else. What happened in the training room wasn’t her. And why are you so defensive, you weren’t even there!” Peter shouted back.

“Like that matters. The evidence still stands, she’s evil,” Iron Spider stated.

“Who died and made you Matt Murdock?” Shuri had joined the argument. Iron Spider gasped in outrage. Eclipse had no plans to let him go on. She inched closer to Peter, close enough to brush his arm with her hand. His power flooded into her, along with some of his anger. Clearly emotions could be copied too. Eclipse made a mental note of that. But that was besides the point, which was that now she had copied a little of Peter’s physical rage that he’d been holding back.

“ENOUGH!!” Eclipse cried out. They all fell silent. “You don’t need to talk about me as if I’m not here. I’m damn sure that I can hear you and I don’t appreciate it.” Eclipse’s anger boiled over red into her hair. Iron Spider sensed the change in the room and started to back away.

“Spider-Man, you can’t keep letting criminals out like this! I’ve had enough, I’ve already told Coulson,” Iron Spider said smugly.

“Ignoring me again, are we? I hope you realize that’s a _very_ bad idea. You should be glad you weren’t in the training room that day. I have no doubt in my mind that Enigma would’ve killed you,” Eclipse threatened.

“That’s enough, let’s stop this argument right now.” Commanded a calm voice from behind Iron Spider. He spun around to see Agent Coulson.

“Coulson, she was out of her containment unit and wielding her weapon. She is acting as a threat and she must be taken care of. I don’t know why these two even let her out,” Iron Spider tried to pin the blame on Peter and Shuri. Coulson looked from the trio on one side of the couch to Iron Spider. He sighed.

“Cho, it would be best if you left the situation,” Coulson said. It was not a request, but Iron Spider still argued.

“But Sir-”

“No. Back to the dorms. We’ll discuss this later. As for you three,” he motioned to the couch as Iron Spider left, the door closing in an unsatisfying _swoosh_ behind him. “Can you explain what exactly is going on?”

“Agent Coulson, Mr. Stark had arrived today to check on Eclipse’s progress and brought Loki to wake her from her spell. She awoke and agreed to talk to Peter and I, so she told us what had happened at Avengers Tower. After that, we came here to watch a movie,” Shuri stated.

“That still doesn’t explain why I walked in to find her holding her weapon, which had been confiscated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and looking ready to attack Cho,” Coulson reminded.

“Sir, we watched Star Wars and the comment was made about how her weapon looks like a lightsaber, so I went and got it so Eclipse could show Shuri,” Peter offered in an apologetic tone.

“And you’re sure you weren’t about to attack them?” Coulson directed at Eclipse. At least someone was acknowledging her.

“No. I was just giving a demonstration when Iron Spider burst in and started accusing me of being a threat. If anything, he is to blame for me being so pissed off right now,” Eclipse said with no small amount of venom. Coulson considered Eclipse’s answer for moment.

“I will admit, Cho does pose a problem whenever a new student arrives. Especially when they arrive under, unique circumstances, so to speak. That being said, I’m not entirely sure what we should do about you, Eclipse.” She tensed at the mention of her name.

“Do you plan on continuing to contain me?” she asked cooly.

“I don’t believe so. You’re lucky to have people vouch for you like this. However, we need to know that you aren’t going to continue to pose a threat to the Academy. Are you going to be able to promise us that Enigma isn’t going to pay us a visit soon?” Coulson asked kindly. Eclipse knew that he meant her no harm.

“No, Sir, I can’t promise that. But I will tell you that you shouldn’t frighten me or keep me in a cold environment. That’s what triggered Enigma at the training exercise, seeing as I was frozen solid and all,” she explained.

“And I am sorry about that. We hadn’t intended for that to happen. I do understand you not wanting to tell me more. So far, most of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s actions haven’t been the most trustworthy toward you. I won’t ask for more, but if you do need to tell someone at the Academy besides these two,” he gestured to Peter and Shuri. “Feel free to tell me. I’ll try and keep it from Fury as best as I can. He’s the one who considers you a threat, not me.”

“What is she supposed to do now?” Shuri spoke up. “Going back to where she was earlier would be a bad idea.”

“If you wish to stay in the dorms, that’s fine. I’m sure Shuri already has something planned out. I won’t say anything and I’ll keep Cho from spreading that you’re out. In the morning, I can clear you fit to resume training,” Coulson decided. Eclipse gave a grateful nod. Coulson got up and left the room.

“Let’s get you back so I can go to bed,” Peter said. They all got up and walked back to the dorms. The lights were off, but Eclipse still turned invisible when they walked in. Shuri pressed a button over Eclipse’s bunk and a holo screen dropped over it. Eclipse squeezed her shoulder to let her know she’d noticed it before getting into bed herself and falling asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How'd you like chapter five? For me, this chapter did have some of my favorite dialogue in it. Other than that, I haven't really got that much to say. This chapter fills in plot holes, while others will be filled in later. Also, pop culture happens, so expect more references in the future. 
> 
> Sorry this chapter took so long to put up, but life happened. Chapter five was the first chapter that I didn't have anything pre-written on, so this might end up being the normal time frame for each chapter, depending on how long they end up being and how much needs to happen.
> 
> Comments are welcome! Thanks for everyone who's been reading it! I hope you like it as much as I do! See you next time!
> 
> P.S. Shit's about to hit the fan so hold on tight for the next chapter!


	6. Deadpool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> -Oohhh!!! People!! HELLO INTERNET!! I am the most fabulous being in this world, Deadpool!!
> 
> We heard. Just look at the chapter title. Need I say more?
> 
> -Uh, yeah! Just because this is a fan fiction and not comics doesn't mean that I still don't have fourth wall powers!! Besides, who wouldn't want to read this, I'm in it. But to be real, that might be the only reason they would be reading this? Is it? Because you didn't even know I'd show up.
> 
> This is the chapter summary, Deadpool. Now on to the main story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Text written in bold is Deadpool's fourth wall breaking in the story.
> 
> -Damn right it is.
> 
> Stop it. Underlined is author (me) replying.
> 
> I'd recommend watching the Ultimate Deadpool episode of Ultimate Spider-Man as those events are directly referenced. Also, many of Deadpool's mannerisms are borrowed from that.

It had been a month since Eclipse had arrived in New York, making it late July. Discussions had begun about who would stay at the Academy for the following school year. To some people’s surprise, Peter would be returning to Midtown Tech as a part-time student. He had missed the last semester there and that’s where he wanted to graduate from. He did say that he would be coming back some weekends and after school some days, even if he didn’t stay overnight. Eclipse was glad. Shuri had left for Wakanda the day after Eclipse had woken up again, so that left Peter as her only close friend.

As it turned out, others enjoyed coming to the movie nights that Peter and Eclipse had together. One of the most frequent visitors turned out to be Miles, which Eclipse didn’t mind. Almost every student at the Academy had turned up at least once. All, that is, except for Iron Spider. Ever since the argument the two had had, they tried to avoid each other at all costs. If he ever entered a room that didn’t require both his and Eclipse’s presence, she walked out of it. Either invisibly or in plain sight. Everyone could feel the tension.

Needless to say, team training exercises tended to not turn out well. At least Coulson had the sense to keep the two away from each other as much as possible. But today, at least, the goal of the training exercise was speed and agility, not teamwork. There were obstacle courses set up as well as different challenges with some of the drones. The only catch for Eclipse was that she wasn’t allowed to teleport or give herself too much of a boost with her spatial control. She thought that was a good thing. It gave her a chance to practice skills she didn’t use as much. Eclipse had just started the next obstacle-

**BORING!! Can we talk about something other than obstacle courses? Good. Now that I have your attention, yes, you! I’d like to say something.**

Deadpool, you can’t just barge into my writing like that!

**Oh, I’m sorry, NOT!! You named this chapter after me and I haven’t gotten the chance to even be in it yet!**

If you would just give me a minute, you’d be written in.

**I’m not going to listen to you right now. You know what readers? Between you and me, this writer doesn’t feel like they love me. And how can they not love me? I am the one and only Deadpool!! (at least in this universe.)**

Alright, that’s enough. Out, I need to keep on with this chapter.

**If you say so! Deadpool out! See you soon as I majestically prance off in my Hello Kitty slippers.**

Thank god.

Eclipse’s head spun and she fell of the course. She landed on her back on the ground with a loud smack. Everyone looked at her strangely as Miles made his way down to her.

“Are you okay? What just happened, you never fall!” Miles asked worriedly.

“I have literally no idea,” she said honestly.

“Are you sick? Should I call the doctors?” Miles started to sound panicked.

“No, please don’t. I just felt like I got vertigo or something. I’m fine,” Eclipse lied. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew it must be liked to her powers in some way. The funny thing was when she examined them, nothing seemed off. Nothing at all. Eclipse brushed it off as not having enough to drink recently. Well, she hadn’t eaten in the past two days, so she figured it was time to do that again. Why would she eat that much if she didn’t have to?

She walked over to the cooler that was at the back of the room to grab a cup and fill it with water. She sat down and watched the others going about training. Peter had said she had been making progress in getting along with people. While Eclipse didn’t think of all of them as friends, she could deal with them. Most of the time.

As far as she knew, nothing special was planned for the rest of the day. It was just more training and then that was it. Her routine was getting to be boring, but there was nothing she could do about it. Fury had come close to popping a blood vessel when he found out Eclipse was out again. She was lucky that she could still continue training and not have to spend her days locked up. There was no telling what could’ve happened if that had actually been carried out.

Feeling better, Eclipse got up and walked over to the cubbies where some equipment was kept. In there was her phone and headphones from Shuri. Music always helped with everything. Eclipse could use something to help deal with the blandness that was agility tests.

The music started playing and Eclipse walked back over to the course. There was no rule that said she couldn’t have music, so as the tempo picked up, she started the exercise again. A happy, shimmering purple spread across her braid, a testament to how good she now felt. Before, her hair had been a dull black. Her music choices had changed somewhat since Peter had introduced her to pop and rock. She mostly listened to what he recommended, but those often led to more songs that Eclipse ended up enjoying.

Eclipse bounded through the course in record time for her. While she was by no means the fastest, even with using her powers as an assist, she wasn’t slow. Not that she was using her powers for this anyways. At the top, she took a huge leap off the back, flipping several times in the air and landing with a roll at the bottom. Some of the others came over, but that was probably because the class was finished. Eclipse couldn’t tell with the music going.

Everyone trouped back to the dorms to find someone Eclipse was fairly sure shouldn’t be in there standing on one of the chairs.

“I gotta say, I’m SUPER jealous of this thing you’ve got going here. I mean, high quality chairs, best thing here, other than me,” the mysterious person in red and black said.

“DEADPOOL!! What are you even doing here? Who let you in?” Spider-Man shouted. Eclipse had literally no idea what was going on.

“Who let me in, uh, the writer? Duh!” the one Spider-Man spoke to replied. Said person’s name must’ve been Deadpool, from what Eclipse gathered.

“We’ve put up with your antics before, but why exactly are you here again?” White Tiger asked.

“Don’t you love me, Tiger? I am HURT by the fact that you don’t! It is-”

“ENOUGH!! Just tell us why you’re here. The last time we let you in, you stole S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets,” Spider-Man interrupted.

“I’m here because- wait wait wait. I can’t believe they fuckin’ did that!”

“DEADPOOL!!” a majority of the people present yelled.

“Right, anyways. I can’t believe they went with the young Spider-Man! I am disgusted! I bet he isn’t even hot,” Deadpool muttered the last part to himself.

“Let’s just skip to the part where you actually have something useful to say,” Powerman commented.

“Isn’t everything I say useful?”

“No.”

“Rude. Well, I’m actually here to talk to Eclipse,” Deadpool stated. He walked over to her and she backed away.

“Back up rich boy, I’m armed,” Eclipse threatened. She thought she heard a snicker from someone. “And how do you even know my name?”

“Seriously? Your name is literally the title of the story. How did I not know?”

“Should I be worried?”

“Yes,” responded Spider-Man.  

“Most definitely,” replied White Tiger.

“You guys are ignoring the fact that Eclipse is quoting memes! I can’t believe it! Even though it’s old memes, you have to start somewhere. She’s grown so much!” Deadpool patted Eclipse on the head. His power jolted through her. Literally jolted. That power felt insane and it made her head spin. Voices started sounding in her head, voices that, oddly enough, sounded like Deadpool. And they kept speaking, too. About her and about the people in the room, and some strange somethings called ‘the writer’ and ‘the readers’. Eclipse knew what those words meant in normal contexts, but here it made no sense.

Black and red flashed chaotically across her hair. They symbolized the control Deadpool’s power had over her, not anger. Her skin began to ripple and marks, almost like blisters, appeared and vanished. One voice in her head began speaking especially loud.

‘Y’know, I bet you could get tons of money on ebay for her,’ the voice said.

‘Na, you’d get even more money on the black market. It’s common sense,’ another argued.

‘Will you shut up?’ This voice seemed to be the main one, as it held the most authority. They at least died down.

“Woah, cool! I’ll give you a million bucks right now if you let me take you with me!” Deadpool exclaimed. This time, Eclipse heard it out loud, as he actually spoke to everyone.

“Deadpool, we’ve been over this. You can’t take every single new superhero you come across with you. It interrupts the balance we have going here. And you don’t have the money,” Iron Fist reasoned.

“I’ll come with you! Really, you are THE BEST!” Nova volunteered.

“You can’t abandon your team, buckethead! Do I need to tell Fury?” Spider-Man threatened. Powerman actually walked over and wrapped both arms around Nova, keeping him from flying over.

“Nuh-uh, no flying away. Remember what happened the last time Deadpool took one of us with him?” Powerman reminded.

“I seem to remember us having to fly all the way to Europe to pick up Spidey because he got left there on his so called ‘mission’. And then we got in trouble because we went to rescue him,” White Tiger recalled.

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault! He destroyed my communicator!” Spider-Man defended himself.

“Oh come on, it was all in good fun!” Deadpool interjected. Everyone who wasn’t involved in the argument had left by now, deciding that sanity was something they wished to keep. The Deadpool voices in Eclipse’s head had ramped up in volume, adding to the chaos she was hearing.

“WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!?!?” She shouted at all of them. They all looked at her. The voices continued on.

**Hey, can she hear the yellow boxes too?** Deadpool looked up at the ceiling.

Yes, those are your voices that are now in her head as well as yours.   

**Neat, thanks for being actually useful for once. Cause most of the time you’re just a lazy butt.**

Deadpool, I wrote you into this story and I can write you out of it.

**You guys, I’ll tell you what. This writer is mean!**

Stop bashing on me through the fourth wall.

“I’ll tell you a little secret, if you tell them to fuck off, they usually go away,” Deadpool confided to Eclipse. No one had noticed her wince as Deadpool held his silent (sort of) conversation.

“The people or the voices?” She asked back.

“Both, actually.”

“Eclipse, don’t listen to him. He’s crazy. He once set me on fire,” Spider-Man advised.

“Do I really have a choice? It’s his powers floating around in my head. I already have enough voices up there without his being added into the mix.” Both Powerman and White Tiger now had slightly horrified expressions and stances because of this comment.   

“See if sinking into a meditative state will help,” Iron Fist offered. “Perhaps that will clear your head.”

“Or we could just knock her out. That should stop it. I’ll get Baby Cho.” Nova began to zip off toward the door. Eclipse flicked her left hand and he froze in place, suspended in the air.

“I swear to the gods that if so much as THINK about that I will not hesitate to rip your spine out!” Eclipse threatened. Her sanity had finally snapped. Between the arguing and the voices, her sane-ness had been pushed off a cliff. Almost every color flashed across her braid in quick succession. The voices rained on and on. She covered her ears in an attempt to rid them, but to no avail. With her focus drawn away, Nova was able to land. He didn’t try to leave though.

“Deadpool, what exactly did you do?” White Tiger asked.

“Me?” He asked innocently, holding both hands to his chest to complete the picture. “I showed up here to see how my buddies at the Academy were doing! And I’d gotten a tip that someone new and powerful was here. You really think I’d stay away with all of this going on?”

“Sure you did. I’m betting that someone paid you to come and sabotage S.H.I.E.L.D. or something like that. I’m surprised they let you in,” Powerman accused.

“Do they even know you’re here?” Iron Fist inquired.

“Does it really matter?”

“Yes,” Everyone but Eclipse responded. The voices still spoke, but they were lessening as Deadpool’s power copy faded.

“Finnneeeee,” he whined. “I’m here because someone paid me a lot of money to come and see what the deal was with all of you new super people. I think. I’m like 70% sure.”

“Well that’s just great. Someone, who you can’t remember, of course, paid you to come spy on us. And you wonder why we don’t like you,” Spider-Man sighed.

“You love me, admit it,” Deadpool said. He schooched over to Spider-Man to nudge him with his shoulder. Spider-Man slapped his hand away.

“Spidey’s right. You can’t keep showing up and expecting everything to be fine. Not after the last stunt you pulled,” White Tiger noted.

“Jeez, if you aren’t going to talk to me, I’ll go spend some time with my good friend, Eclipse.”

“Who said I ever liked you?” she asked. Her headache had finally worn off, but it left her feeling strange, and not in a good way.

“You wound me so deeply. I mean I show up here, just for you, and you reject me!” he said in a false hurt tone.

“Seriously man, you’re bordering on stalkerish,” Powerman pointed out.

“That’s it! I’m leaving. I’ve had enough of whatever shit is going on here,” Eclipse declared. She threw up her hands and left the room.

“Web-head, was it your’s or Princess Science’s idea to teach her curse words?” Nova asked dryly.

“I mean, we showed her vines and movies and stuff,” Spider-Man explained.

“She’s learning!” Deadpool clapped his hands excitedly.

“Perhaps some of Deadpool’s mannerisms rubbed off on her when she copied his powers,” Iron Fist suggested.

“It’s possible, but I really don’t want to test that theory. Especially with that idiot over there.” Spider-Man gestured to Deadpool.

“I’m gonna go follow her!” Deadpool said.

“NO!!” Everyone else shouted, but he still ran out the door.

* * *

 Eclipse went back to the training room. The best way to clear her head was always practicing her skills. She hadn’t gotten a chance to use her weapon earlier today, so she did so now. She had no idea what kept driving her to practice her skills continuously when her practice was always the same. Nevertheless, her mind began to empty as she began her sword routine. One thought that came up was that it was about time that she modified it. All of her research in that area proved that she could indeed do it here, and possibly by herself. Maybe she could add some kind of double bladed sword. Not that she was stealing from Star Wars or anything. . .

Yes, a change in weapons was definitely in order. She’d been working with her sword and glaive exclusively over the past month and it was getting boring. Eclipse really needed a break from the Academy so she could do something exciting.

“Did someone say exciting?” Deadpool inquired in a very hyper tone from the doorway.

“Okay, how the hell did you hear that?”

“Are you kidding, I read it. It’s literally in the sentence above,” Deadpool explained. This left Eclipse even more confused than she already was by this person and it showed yellow all over her hair.

“You know, I’ve had it with you! You just show up here randomly and get up all in my head! I don’t even know what you’ve done to me!” She shouted at him.

“Me?” he asked innocently. “ _I_ didn’t do anything! I came to see how you were hanging, get it _hanging_? Haha! I’m hilarious!” Deadpool laughed.

“You can’t make that joke. I’m not even a Spider.”

“I can make all the jokes I want to! And you are coming with me!” Deadpool grabbed Eclipse’s arm and started dragging her out of the room.

“Oh no, I never said I was going with you.” Eclipse pulled out of Deadpool’s grasp and reactivated her sword.

“I love a fight!” Deadpool exclaimed as he pulled out twin katanas. He sprinted toward her, swords trailing behind him. Eclipse pivoted out of the way of his double swing and blocked it behind her back. Deadpool disengaged and tried to sweep her feet out from under her. This plan failed as Eclipse wrapped her own legs around his before somersaulting and launching him away from her.

She picked up her sword and charged toward Deadpool, and at the last second, teleported behind him and sliced him diagonally across his back. With her sword superheated and not in a stable form, the cut burned instantly.   

“OW!!, OWOWOW!!” Deadpool shrieked as he pressed both hands to his back. Eclipse knew he was being overdramatic. She knew he had extremely good healing powers. In a moment’s notice, he gripped his katanas again and tried a downward chop straight to Eclipse’s head. She parried the blow and spun in a wide crescent to knock one of the katanas out of Deadpool’s hand. Her reasoning was that they would be more evenly matched if they each had one sword.

Sadly, her idea proved to be incorrect as he then pulled out a gun from one of the _tiny_ pouches on his belt. The gun fired lasers, as Eclipse soon discovered, because they came streaming toward her at breakneck speed. She dodged to the side as they made impact behind her. She growled and used her powers to launch herself up into the air to tuck herself into a spin. Her braid spun rapidly around her, a weapon in and of itself, as she made her decent. At the last second, she pulled out of it to slice down on to Deadpool’s wrist, chopping it clean off.

The horror of the fact that Deadpool had now picked up his severed hand and was now trying to reattach it made Eclipse sick. She began to teleport away, but Deadpool grabbed hold of her right as she pulled herself onto the Edge of Time. He somehow came with her.

“What?!” Her voice echoed in the glass-like plane. “There is no possible way that you could’ve done this.” Eclipse shook him off, but he still stood next to her. Her shocked expression and yellow braid remained.

“So, can you teleport us outside?” he asked. “We need to go. Like kinda soon. I don’t want S.H.I.E.L.D. to show up and kick my ass again.”

“Um, no. You aren’t even supposed to be here,” Eclipse replied.

“Well, in any case, good fight!” Deadpool held out his now reattached hand for her to shake. She did so with a skeptical look on her face. “I’ll tell you what, if you come with me for this, I can show you who paid me to come and spy on you.”

“Are you sure you aren’t going to turn me in to them?” she asked.

“No, silly! I don’t like them either, so this is beneficial for us both!”

“Whatever you say, as long as you get me back here in one piece. I have to say, though, you can handle those katanas well,” Eclipse acknowledged begrudgingly.

“Alright, it’s a deal! Now get us out of here!”

**This is gonna be fun!**  

* * *

 

They reached the jet that Deadpool miracuously had without any mishaps. In retrospective, it was quite small compared to the quinjets, but for some reason, there was what looked like a moped roped down in the very small cargo area. Eclipse decided that she didn’t want to know.

“Do you even know where exactly we’re going?”

“Of course I do!”

**I do, I swear! Actually, wait, let me think about it.**

Y’know, there’s a first time for everything.

**Oh shut up!**

“So, location?” Eclipse wondered.

“Somewhere in this great land we call North America!” Deadpool said with flamboyance.

“Come to think of it, I really have no idea why I’m here. This goes against all reason at all.”

“What can I say, I rub off on people! Get it?!” Eclipse cringed at the innuendo.

“Be honest, are you going to turn me in? Cause it feels like I’m walking into a trap right now.”

“Don’t worry about it! I’ve got it covered!”

“And that fills me with so much confidence,” Eclipse said drawled. A new color flashed across her braid, mint. Sarcasm, clearly.

“What reason would I have to turn you in? Besides the money, I mean. Though now that I think about it, that’s not such a bad id-” Deadpool was abruptly cut off by a smack to the back of his head. 

“Don’t you DARE even think about it!” Eclipse shouted furiously. “The ONLY reason I’m going with you is because I need to know who’s trying to spy on me!”

“Uh, not trying, flickers,” Deadpool poked her in the chest. Eclipse rolled her eyes at the nickname, wondering how in the world he could’ve found about about _that_ from her first day on Earth. “Succeeding. Or else I wouldn’t be here! Besides, this chapter is pure gold!” 

One would hope.

**You can’t bitch about yourself, that’s my job!**

Eclipse just gave up on trying to understand what the hell Deadpool was talking about. Her best guess as to why she was even here was because of the fact that Deadpool’s powers had affected her so severely that he somehow had changed her will to come with him. It really made no sense and shouldn’t be possible, but here she was. She peeked over at the navigation chart to try and see where they were going. It just showed empty land.

“Y’know what I could really use right now? Some tacos. Some Big. Ass. Tacos. All this fourth wall breaking has me hungry,” Deadpool commented after Eclipse had been quiet for some time. She groaned at the break in the peace and silence. The pounding in her head hadn’t ceased since she’d met him.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response. I’ve given up at this point.”

“I’m serious. I would KILL for some tacos right now! Not like I don’t do that already!” He said the last part in a sing-songy voice.

“What is your deal? Don’t you ever shut up?”

“I do whenever I’m asleep with my full sized Hello Kitty and my unicorn! And trust me, when you’ve been through what I’ve been through, you’d know that this is just the tip of the craziness.” While Eclipse heard no real darkness, she fully expected for there to be a full story behind it.

“If this is relatively normal, then I dread to know how bad it can get,” Eclipse noted dryly.

“Hahaha! You don’t wanna know!”

“You’re right, I don’t. I don’t need anything else floating around my head, as if there isn’t enough already.”  
  
“And that’s why I’m going to tell you exactly what happened!” Deadpool declared.

“WHAT?! Nononono that is such a bad idea!” Eclipse desperately tried to stop Deadpool from speaking, but he spoke anyways.

“So, I was sick one time. Real scary. Like freaky. And so I went to this doctor and they said that they could make me better. I take them up on the offer and the next thing I know, I’m completely awesome! Superpowers and all that!” Deadpool regaled. Eclipse figured that wasn’t the truth, but she made no point in asking.

“What about you?” Eclipse didn’t know why she wasn’t expecting the question. With no suitable lie to tell, she tried to dodge the question.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s been awhile since I my past happened, so excuse me if I don’t care to remember it,” Eclipse bit out, her hair pricking red.

“Oh I get it! I hereby diagnose you with plot-convenient amnesia!” Deadpool proclaimed.

Oh, is that what you’re calling it?

**No, what it really is is you can’t come up with a decent backstory. I’m disappointed in you! Why are you writing a story if you can’t even figure it all out?**

Thank you. You’re commentary is not at all helpful or wanted.

**Says the person who keeps interrupting the action.**

“Is that supposed to mean anything to me?”

“No, but I get it, pasts can be a bitch to us sometimes. But as long as they don’t try to run you over with a Zamboni, you should be good. Oh look, we’re almost here!”

“Zamboni?” Eclipse murmured to herself. Truth be told, she had no idea what that was or where ‘here’ was. She glanced at the radar map to see a large cluster of dots almost directly beneath them and smaller, blinking dots flying toward them. When she looked out the window, she saw several projectiles flying their way.

“Should we do something about those?” Eclipse pointed out the window at what was incoming.

“Nah, I’ve got a plan. How good’s your skydiving?” Deadpool let go of the controls as the plane began to drift downwards. He unclipped his moped from the wall and set it in the middle of the lowering ramp.

“I’ll be fine, why?”

“Cause we’re about to jump!!” Deadpool shouted with exhilaration, revving the quite pathetic engine of his moped before shooting off the ramp.

**Stop talking smack about my moped!**

Eclipse stumbled as the plane shook. When she looked at the panel in the front, almost all of the lights were blinking. On top of that, she also smelled smoke, so it was a good assumption that the plane was hit. She groaned and swore that if she got out of this alive, she was going to beat the crap out of Deadpool for putting her through this. And then she jumped.

Air rushed past her as she fell, causing her to lose her balance and shift around and nearly go into an uncontrolled spin. She used her powers to straighten herself out before looking to where Deadpool was. His moped plummeted toward the ground, but Eclipse felt no real need to stop him. Besides, she could hear him whooping with delight at the experience. Typical. Eclipse tucked into a dive, rocketing toward him and the ground. She had to bank right quickly to avoid what looked like a missile coming at her. It swung back around, so she dodged it again. But this time, she grabbed ahold of one of its fins and allowed herself to be pulled along with it.

“Sweet ride there!” Deadpool hollered over the wind. He gave Eclipse a thumbs up as she hurtled past him. Eclipse swung herself under and around the missile, allowing her to expertly flip to land on top of it. Once rebalanced and firmly grounded to the missile with her powers, she looked around to find exactly where she was going. A large rectangular building loomed in front of her.

“Do you have an actual plan?” Eclipse shouted. Time was running out for her missile ride before it made impact.

“Well, these idiots here have something very important to me, so my plan is to go in, get it, and then blow this building to hell!”

“Descriptive,” Eclipse acknowledged. “Was you’re actual reason for taking me out here because you wanted to see what I could do? Because it looks like you don’t need my help or like these people would be the ones who would spy on S.H.I.E.L.D. for any reason.”

“Nah, I really wanted you along for the ride. Besides, you’re having a good time!” It was true. Jumping out of a plane and then subsequently riding a missile until impact really wasn’t something included in the standard Academy training.

As the ground rushed to meet them, Deadpool pulled a lever on the back of his moped. A red and black parachute shot out, slowing his fall.  Eclipse backflipped off her ride and teleported to the ground. The missile was in the exact same spot she left it, her teleportation not taking any time in her current reality. She held out her left hand and used her powers to direct the missile a safe distance away from her location before ramming it into the ground and having it explode.

“Well, there goes our stealthy approach, if we even had one,” Eclipse muttered. She slunk over to the bushes to where Deadpool had parked his moped. He was adjusting his belt and his katanas.

“Trust me, when dealing with absolute idiots like HYDRA, a sneak attack is still possible,” he replied.

“Oh, you must get along _sooo_ well,” she commented. Again with the sarcastic mint color on her braid. She glanced out of their hiding spot, but saw no one else around them.

“Not so much. It’s really hard to get along with a crazy organization trying to take over the world.”

**Among other things.**

“Fun. So, how are we going to go about this? I can always sneak in with teleportation and invisibility, but I have to know what I’m looking for. Do you even know what we’re looking for?” Eclipse questioned.

“I said we were looking for something?”

You did indeed.

**Hmm, don’t remember that, but whatever!**

“Whoops. But then again, do I really need an excuse to go and kill HYDRA?” Deadpool continued.

**No. No I don’t.**

**Yes you do, these are still people.**

This is quite funny coming from the person who quite literally kills for a living.

“Can you just get back to the plan?” Eclipse sighed, exasperated. Her hair now turned orange with impatience, or as Peter and Shuri liked to call it, completely done with everything. It really did describe how she felt in that moment.

“Right! So I’m thinking we go in guns blazing and kill all of the agents we can out front, then go in and find all of the data that’s been collected on you and destroy it, before we come back out and obliterate the building!”

**Oooh, big word there!**

Would you PLEASE SHUT UP?? It’s hard enough writing as it is without you constantly interrupting me.

**Well maybe if you had an idea of what the hell you were actually writing about instead of constantly having to pull it out of your ass, we wouldn’t be having this discussion!**

First of all, rude. And second of all, you're not the one writing.

**I bet this would go a whole lot better if you just let me write.**

Not a chance, now get out!

“Fine, let’s just get this over with.” Eclipse grumbled.

“Hold up, you’re not even going to question the fact that we are about to go in and kill total strangers?” Deadpool gasped, shocked.

“No, why?”

“Because that’s not cool. I know that I’ve gone off the deep end with this kind of stuff, but that’s not good that you are already at that point. You need to let some of Spidey’s morals rub off on you.” Deadpool was completely serious about this. In fact, this was the first time all day that Eclipse heard him like that. Everything else had been said in either a joking or crazy tone.

“Listen, when you’ve been through what I’ve been through, then you can judge my lack of morals.”

“Let’s make a deal. I’ll do the killing, seeing as I have a personal background with HYDRA, and you can go and erase the data. Spidey would kill me, but not really, if I let you go off like that.” Deadpool reasoned. Eclipse groaned, but nodded her head all the same. It made no difference who these people were, just that they had planned to do her harm. Death seemed like a reasonable solution for them, but clearly someone wanted her to have morals, so she wouldn’t.

“Wait a minute or so from when I leave to head into the base. I need a clear path for my teleportation.” This time it was Deadpool’s turn to nod. Eclipse cracked her knuckles before teleporting to the edge of the compound. The moment she stepped off the Edge of Time, she turned invisible. It wasn’t like anyone was going to see her moment of visibility anyways, not with her instantaneous teleportation.

Now that she was at the fence, Eclipse could clearly see the entrance to the building. It was guarded by a door, but it would be no match for her superheated sword. Another teleportation put her right in front of it. There weren’t even guards in the area. Eclipse couldn’t believe how sloppy HYDRA, if that’s what they’re called, was being. She ignited her sword and instead of focusing her energy to make the blade stable, she focused it on heating the blade to a point where it would melt metal.

After another quick glance around to make sure no one had come up, Eclipse plunged her blade into the metal of the door. The metal bubbled and sizzled where it met her heated blade. She dragged the blade in a circle large enough to let herself through and pushed it in. Alarms had started to go off a minute before. She didn’t know if it was due to her cutting the door or from Deadpool’s arrival. She didn’t need to look to see that he was here. His constant chatter to a nonexistent person that she couldn’t hear, but could still feel, along with explosions signaled told Eclipse in a very clear way, that Deadpool was in fact there.

“ _Stealth is useless at this point,_ ” Eclipse murmured to herself. It was easier to use her own language when fighting because then no one could know what she was saying. And with that statement, Eclipse used her powers to push the circular hole in the door inward, creating an opening. Still invisible, she ducked through the door and into the building.

Red warning lights glowed and alarms continued to sound, but there was no one in sight. She looked quickly for a map so she could see where the control room was. After several minutes of searching in the hallway, she gave up and felt around with her powers to see if she could find any electrical signals. Eclipse spied a small blinking camera on the wall and focused her powers on it. Her senses rushed down the wires that fed energy to the camera until she came across an area with more signals than all the others. Even if it wasn’t the room where all of the data was stored, it would be a good place to start.

Eclipse sprinted down the hallway, but never ran into anyone. While it was strange, she still manipulated the sound waves around her so that her steps were silent. Adapting her power to move vibrational energy, and for that matter, electrical signals, was draining, but it did make missions like this efficient. She followed those signals until she came up to a glass room. Huge computers towered over every part of the wall and people milled about everywhere. There was no way she could find the data she needed and not get noticed. And there was the small problem that Eclipse had no idea what she was looking for.

“Whatcha doin?” a very distinctive and, by now, annoying voice spoke behind her. Eclipse practically levitated and spun around to face Deadpool. At least she had enough sense not to make a loud sound or to let go of her invisibility. Nevertheless, her braid glowed yellow with surprise.

“I like the shiny yellow,” Deadpool commented.

“Can you even see me? Because if I’m visible then there’s more than one problem going on here,” Eclipse whispered.

“Of course I can’t see you! But I can read, remember?” Deadpool spoke in a normal volume. The people in the room didn’t so much as shift toward where they stood outside the room.

“Will you hush? I’m trying not to get us caught. How did you even get here so fast?”

“Those guards were ridiculously easy. I barely did anything. Why are you standing there? Go get that data!”  
  
“I have literally no idea what I’m looking for, why don’t you do it?” Eclipse snapped back quickly.

“Fiiinnnneeee. I’ll meet you outside then. Now shoo!” Deadpool waved her off. Eclipse rolled her eyes and snuck away from the room. Yes, she was still invisible, but that didn’t mean she was sloppy.

“ _Come with me, Eclipse. Your help will be needed, Eclipse. This is a life or death matter, Eclipse_ ,” she half-mocked in her own language as she made her way down a different hallway. She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she never noticed when she made several wrong turns. All of the sudden, she found herself in a white room with medical equipment as well as several dangerous looking instruments on the wall. And, of course, this room was the only room to have a motion sensor fixed in the doorway. One that Eclipse walked through without noticing.

The room began to glow red with the warning lights. Boots began trampling behind Eclipse, but she would rather face them than whatever was in that room. It felt far too foreboding. She spun around to find a pair of HYDRA agents pointing guns at her. The guards clearly couldn’t see her, but they still approached the room with caution. A quick glance at her surroundings told Eclipse that she would be in too close quarters to fight with any type of weapon she had right now. She made a mental note to try and modify it so that she could have a small knife-like blade. It was a good thing that she had enough skill in unarmed combat that fighting of two guards shouldn’t be too difficult.

Eclipse sprinted forward a few steps before bounding off of the wall and twisting herself into a side kick. The blow connected solidly with the agent’s head and he fell into his partner. She slid underneath the legs of the second agent and then swept them out from under him. He fell with a crash as Eclipse launched herself to her feet. Within moments, she had delivered a rapid, but forceful, as she had added a bit of her power to it, to his face. That knocked him unconscious.

In that moment, the agent in front of her changed in her eyes to someone else. While Eclipse didn’t directly recognize this person her mind had conjured, something about them felt familiar. Shock mixed with pain, anger, and fear at the sight of them, and she had no real idea why. She shook her head to clear her eyes to find that the first agent was getting up. She used her powers to slam him into the wall before she ran up and all but shattered his jaw with an elbow jab.

Both agents were now disposed of and Eclipse could continue on her way. This time, she took the right path out of the building and met up with Deadpool right outside of the walls. If he wasn’t wearing a mask, she knew he would be grinning. That smile was probably half-crazed and she had no desire to see it.

“Have fun storming the castle?” he asked.

“This wasn’t a castle,” she replied blankly.

“Man, Spidey’s really falling down in the reference department! He needs to make sure you see all the classics. You’re missing ou-” Eclipse cut him off.

“Off topic. Now, are we going to blow this building up? And if we do, do we have a way back to the Academy?”

“Yes and yes! Watch this!” Deadpool held up a small button and pressed it. An explosion sounded and part of the building began to collapse in on itself. “Now, if you would follow me, I can show you to the grandest ship man has ever laid eyes on!” Deadpool announced it what could be described as a game-show host’s voice. They walked out of the bushes to see a get that looked very similar to the old one that they’d come here on.

“I’m not even going to ask anymore, just PLEASE get me back in one piece. That’s all I ask,” Eclipse looked up to the sky as if she was praying.

“No promises!” Deadpool skipped onto the plane.

“Oh gods,” Eclipse mumbled as she followed.

* * *

The sight of the Academy had never looked better. The trip back had taken just over an hour, but it felt like longer because Deadpool had been jabbering away the entire time. Eclipse all but sprinted off the plane in an effort to get away from probably the craziest person she had ever met. Deadpool, in turn, blew her a kiss through his mask before taking off again. She could die happy if she never set eyes on him again. Eclipse walked back into the building and back to her normal routine.

**You know, I feel personally attacked that you didn’t include any more dialogue of me! I’m calling bullshit! It’s injustice!**

Really, can you not? This chapter’s over. Finally.

**I never asked to be part of your shitty fanfiction, but it just happened. At least I got to make it better. You’re welcome, ladies and gentlemen! You’re welcome for this long-ass chapter that served no purpose other than the writer wanted to include me!**

I’ve really had enough of this. We are done here. Get out and goodbye!

**See ya!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a doozy of a chapter that was! Defiantly the longest one yet, seeing as it was THIRTY pages long! But to be honest, I had tons of fun writing it in all of its glory. I really haven't got that much to say about it. It's Deadpool. Hope this was a fun read and thanks to everyone who's been reading this!
> 
> See you next time!


	7. Dreamscape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eclipse did not asked to be spied on, least of all by her own classmate in her own dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What?!?!?! A chapter with plot?? Feels weird after the Deadpool chapter. This one was a lot harder to write, even when I had completely planned out what I wanted to happen. Also, a good part of this chapter is based on a power Iron Fist has in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, so I took the idea and expanded on it. Well, have fun and enjoy!!

“I’d like to go on record and say that this is a really bad idea.”

“I know, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Fury’s orders.” White Tiger responded to Miles’s comment.

“Really, in what world is putting someone into a ‘medically induced coma’ and having Danny walk around in their head a good idea?” Nova made quote marks around the coma part, his voice dripped with sarcasm.

“You do realize that I’ve done this before?” Iron Fist said back to Nova.

“Yeah, but you never did it to any of us. Except for that one time with Nightmare. That doesn’t count,” Powerman pointed out.

“I don’t want any of you in my head. Don’t you dare even think about it,” Scarlet Spider growled.

“Don’t worry, it’s not like any of us want to be in your head anyways,” Nova joked. The eyes on Scarlet’s mask narrowed in a glare.

“Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure if I could dreamwalk with you. It must be because you’re a synthezoid and not something that chi energy considers actually human,” Iron Fist pondered.

“Or because of the fact that Scarlet doesn’t even have dreams. I mean look at him, the guy doesn’t have a pleasant bone in him!” Iron Spider not-so-subtly insulted. Scarlet Spider marched over to him.

“You wanna say that again, punk?” he threatened.

“Will you cut it out? Fury asked Iron Fist to perform a dream psyop test on Eclipse, not any of you,” White Tiger commanded.

“But that still doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. She doesn’t even know that we’re doing this! Oh man! This is going to go so wrong!”

“Stop worrying you’re webs off, she won’t be able to do anything to us,” Iron Spider brushed off Miles’s anxiety about the whole situation.

“Speak for yourself, you can’t even sneak up on her. It’s like she’s always watching everything you do. Freaky,” Powerman said.

“If you all are going to keep bickering, I’m going to make you leave. I need it to be quiet in here,” Iron Fist requested.

“Let’s get out of here. We don’t want to be in here when things go wrong!” Everyone seemed to agree with Nova’s logic and followed him out of the medical bay.

Iron Fist turned so he could face where Eclipse was. Currently, she was suspended in what looked like a bacta tank from Star Wars. The liquid inside functioned as liquid oxygen, so that Eclipse could still breathe, as well as drugs to keep her sedated. Getting her in this position in the first place had been tricky. Drugs had been snuck into her food during one of the times when she actually ate so that there wouldn’t be any suspicion as to what was going to happen. People managed to pick up on the fact that Eclipse couldn’t detect drugs of any kind, so this was the ideal way to get her in this continuous sleep. Iron Fist would have a difficult time dreamwalking with someone who rarely slept.

The purpose of all of this was to see, based on Eclipse’s mental stability, if she could be safely trained in the field. S.H.I.E.L.D. had made a mistake in sending her out within those first weeks before she had gotten fully adjusted and before S.H.I.E.L.D. knew what they were dealing with. As for Eclipse’s mental stability, no one really knew about that. Eclipse mostly kept to herself, and the only way people knew what she was feeling was based on the color of her hair, not her outward display of emotions or actions. While some people, Iron Fist included, had begun to figure out what each of the colors meant, they gave no real insight as to what Eclipse was like on the inside.

Ideas were tossed around among Coulson, Fury, and a few others as to how this test should be performed. Mind-reading was considered, but Coulson, who knew Eclipse best out of the group mentioned, said that she would react badly to any of the people who could read minds. Charles Xavier would have been good in theory, but the two had never met, and it was best to not have a stranger poking around inside one’s head. Loki had been proposed, and then shot down immediately by numerous sources. For one, no one really trusted him not to get up to some form of mischief and/or mind control. And for another, while the two were familiar, Eclipse currently hated Loki’s guts, and S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t want to deal with a fight between an angry god and an extradimensional (and extremely powerful) being.

Thus, the idea of dreamwalking had been proposed. Eclipse saw Iron Fist everyday and she trusted him more than most of the others. If Spider-Man had been at the Academy and not back at Midtown Tech for the time being, he would have strongly objected to this idea. But, he wasn’t there to oppose, so the plan would be carried out.

“I suppose I should get this started,” Iron Fist murmured to himself. He placed his hand on the tank and stretched out his chi energy. He felt it come to a halt against a mental wall, but he pushed past it and entered into the world of dreams.

* * *

 

Eclipse stood in a small meadow surrounded by towering trees. The grass beneath her booted feet was comprised of pastel yellows, greens, purples, and blues. The sky above her was no longer the brilliant blue it was at the Academy, but it now had a faint lavender tint to it. That was the sky she thought belonged to her own dimension, but she couldn’t be sure.

The trees around her were not normal trees either. They bore a resemblance to what would be japanese cherry blossom trees, but the leaves were bright, jeweled shades green, blue, and purple. Farther off in the distance, different trees grew, but they looked more normal. None of them had the same whimsical feel that the meadow did.

In the distance, Eclipse could hear a waterfall. She knew that waterfall was the brightest shade of blue imaginable. In the blink of an eye, she was there. No teleportation, just pure control over the inside of her own mind. And she knew that was where she was. She knew her own mind better than anything; she did spend a thousand years trapped in it after all.

The cascading water shimmered in the sun and fell down the cliffside in many different facets. Despite the large scale of it, the rushing water sounded more like the bubbling of a stream instead of a roaring waterfall. It bounced off several points on the cliff-face before falling over silver rocks into a large, glassy pool.

Eclipse took off her boots and rolled up her leggings before she dipped a toe in the water. It was cool. She leveled her breathing and stepped onto the water’s surface. Small ripples extended out from where she stood, they were the only thing disturbing the smooth pool. Normally, she would have to use her powers to water walk, but since she was in her own mind, that wasn’t a problem.

She enjoyed the peace and quiet for a few minutes’ time before she began to think. The very prospect behind that fact was still strange to her, even if she’d done it often enough. She was inside her own mind, in a form she created, and was thinking and it felt like those thoughts were coming from her head, not all around her. She’d tried in the past to meditate even deeper and see how many times she could create that pattern, but to no avail. Something always stopped her. But, that did bring up an interesting idea. Could she feel her actual body right now?

Her powers flowed outward, but they stopped when they reached a wall. Curious. Eclipse knew Enigma also inhabited a place in her mind, but that wall felt different. This wall had a sense of familiarity to it. She glanced down at her wrists and the pieces came together.

She was trapped here. Again. Wait, again? Yeah, that seemed right. Something _had_ broken her free of her crystal and she was taken to a different world. A new dimension where she could have a fresh start to things. Except if that was the case, then why didn’t she remember herself being trapped in crystal again?

But what if she had never left her crystal in the first place? That was a terrifying thought. It meant that her mind had somehow conjured a new world for her to inhabit and she didn’t even know it. Was it even possible that Eclipse could trick herself and not even know she was doing it? How had she come back from the brink of nothingness in her own mind to somehow creating a full new world? If this was all in her mind, then why didn’t she have supreme control over everything that went on? And why couldn’t she feel her powers being drained into her dimension to stop it from tearing itself apart?

Her thoughts would’ve continued on this path had she not heard what sounded like a gong go off in the sky. A quick look up told her that the sky had developed a golden sheen to it, one that felt quite familiar. Nevertheless, Eclipse didn’t know what it meant and she reeled away from the sky to press herself against the cliff face. A pressure began to build up behind her eyes and Enigma struggled to break free.

Against her will, Eclipse was pulled away from the waterfall and to a huge glass wall. The wall may have looked clear, but all she could see behind it was darkness, an inky black that threatened to pull her under. She reeled away from it, but then some force compelled her to take a step forward. She gingerly ran her fingertips along the even surface. The world around her turned to shadow as another hand, a mirror of Eclipse’s, ran along the wall exactly as Eclipse’s did. Enigma.

“So, come to pay me a visit have we, Reya’?” Enigma grinned. Eclipse, for the first time, really, studied Enigma’s face. She brushed off the comment for the time being. It was unnerving to have your own face stare right back at you, and yet it was a face that felt nothing like Eclipse’s did. For starters, the eyes were completely different. Instead of white surrounding the irises, black shadow replaced it. The irises themselves were blindingly white, while the pupils were still black. It was like staring into an abyss and the sun at the same time. And then there was the grin, a savage, mocking sort of grin. Eclipse flinched once she’d processed the changes.

“Lost in thought? I think that would be difficult for you, seeing as you are still standing right in front of me.”

“What did you call me?” Eclipse asked.

“Of course you don’t remember. Or rather you’ve buried those memories so deep that they have no hope of ever seeing the light of day again.” Enigma commented.

“And you do know?”

“Yes. See, unlike you, I could never lose touch with reality. You did, and well, I was able to dig up what you hid and kept it for myself.” Enigma grinned, as if she had a very funny inside joke. And in a way, she did.

“You have the advantage here, so why are you telling me this?” Eclipse inquired suspiciously. Something was up, and Eclipse couldn’t see inside Enigma’s mind, even though Enigma could see inside of hers.

“To let you know that if you let me take over, you’ll know what really happened,” Enigma tempted.

“I know enough. I’m not going to let that happen. I’m already broken as it is, you don’t need to add to it.”

“I can see that. All I had to do was look around to see how broken you are. And you haven’t even noticed it.” Eclipse took her eyes off Enigma and looked around. The sky was still shadowed and the stars looked like black holes that swallowed all of the light. If that wasn’t concerning enough, the ground beneath her feet had begun to crack. Purplish-blue light showed through. Eclipse’s eyes widened and she felt her heart thunder in her ears. Enigma laughed, but Eclipse couldn’t hear her.

“No, this isn’t happening again! I stopped this! I swear it wasn’t my fault this time!” Eclipse yelled at no one.

“I’ll leave you to it! Until we meet again,” Enigma gave a bow and vanished. The sight of those cracks kept tumbling over and over in Eclipse’s head. They wouldn’t leave her alone. It was too much, her past rearing its ugly head again. Bits and pieces of her memory had come back over the past weeks, including one that she tried to bury again. It was too horrible to even try and comprehend. And like that, Eclipse felt as if she had just shut down. Her thoughts raced out of control and then vanished, her pulse quickened, and she froze in place. Her face went numb as she stared with terror into the ground.

The cracks continued on and she tried to force her eyes closed, but it didn’t work. Flashes of her hands glowing and huge rifts spreading out from her played over and over in her eyes. Along with the sick feeling of triumph. Whatever had happened to her dimension, Eclipse had done it herself. Enigma played no part in it.

Those fissures widened until they swallowed her up. But Eclipse did not scream. She never screamed. Because if she did, they would find her and then this would happen over and over again. Darkness consumed her, not just the physical, suffocating blackness around her, but also in how she felt. There was so much guilt and pain that she couldn’t hold in. And she didn’t try to, because she was alone.

Alone. The concept of it had never bothered her before she was trapped. There were always people around her, even if she didn’t relate to any of them. Alone for her was when she called for help, and no one answered. She would call and call and call, but nothing was there. It was just her. Enigma by that point had retreated so deep into Eclipse’s own mind that she couldn’t be found. Eclipse had no idea about what she felt and she didn’t want to know.

Eclipse curled up into a ball and tried to block out the dark. It didn’t work. It crept into her mind. In the dark, she was powerless. In the dark, she was afraid. In the dark, she was alone. So alone that no one could ever hope to find her and bring her back.

Except someone did find her. A gold light began to beat back the darkness and Eclipse backed herself into a corner that had suddenly appeared. She squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears. The apparitions her mind created always came to haunt her like this, giving her false hope. For all she knew, she could still be trapped in crystal and her mind had finally snapped and started playing tricks on her. She had no way of knowing. Her mind felt more familiar than anything she’d ever known.

The light grew and Eclipse tried everything to make it go away. As much as the dark scared her, this unknown light currently scared her more. If she was in the dark, no one could see her. She pushed against the light with her powers, but it refused to budge. That wasn’t entirely new, as even she didn’t reign supreme in her own mind. Sure, she had control over a lot, but not everything. The glow continued to brighten and once more Eclipse tried to push it away. In a last ditch effort, she tried to turn invisible, but clearly her powers just refused to work. Or maybe her brain was too out of sorts to even access her powers.

“Finally I found you. I’ve been looking for you for a while,” the light spoke. The voice was familiar somehow. Eclipse cracked an eyelid open.

“D-Danny?” she asked. When someone else was in her mind, she felt that they should be addressed on a first name basis. And she was right, Iron Fist now stood in the darkness, a golden glow surrounding him.

“How are you even here? Are you real, or have I finally lost it?” Surely if he was real, he would have an answer. But then again, Eclipse didn’t trust her own mind to be able to come up with a response. For all she knew, she could’ve made up the Academy.

“I’m really here. I’m using a power I have called dream-walking so that I can see you. You’re asleep right now,” Iron Fist explained.

“I don’t remember falling asleep. Hell, I don’t even know if I’d ever woken up” Eclipse’s voice trembled as she spoke. “You shouldn’t be here in the first place, even if I was sleeping normally. Which means you aren’t real! Why am I being haunted by people that don’t even exist!” Her voice rose in volume and pitch. Distress radiated off of her in waves. Iron Fist needed to find a way to convince her that he was real, not something of her imagination. He sat down on the nonexistent floor.

“Is there any way that I can convince you?” he asked. Eclipse shook her head. Her breath began to come in short gasps as all of the whites around her eyes became visible. She _wanted_ to believe him, and that was the whole problem. If she so blatantly gave an imaginary being her trust, where would that lead her? So many possibilities played out, and almost none of them were good. In fact, most of them ended her somehow destroying herself from inside her own mind.

“I-if you really a-are real, then you wou-would just leave me be!” Eclipse whispered in a shrill voice. Iron Fist’s mouth drew into a grim line, but he nodded.

“Just know, I might not be able to come back if I do,” he warned as he stood back up.

“I know.” Eclipse looked up to him with downcast eyes. “I wouldn’t even try.” There was no bitterness in this tone. The way she said it was almost encouraging him to try again. In fact, that was exactly what she meant. If he could successfully leave and come back, then Eclipse would have reason to believe he was real and this whole new part of her life hadn’t been a wild fantasy. She would be able to feel him force through her mental walls and come back.

“Alright then,” Iron Fist said as a farewell. Eclipse hoped he has picked up on the message. Knowing him, he probably had. The gold light surrounded him again and he disappeared. Eclipse felt his power vanish.

“ _Please let this all be real_ ,” she muttered over and over again. Using her own language helped her keep grounded in an otherwise uncertain world. At least she knew that was real.

* * *

 

Iron Fist shook his head as he backed away from the glass. This was more troubling than any of them had first anticipated. If Eclipse was starting to believe that nothing was real, then that meant she didn’t have faith in any of the people at the Academy.

It all made sense, really. Eclipse’s mind was one of the most developed he’d ever encountered. It must’ve been from the fact that she spent a thousand years trapped there. He supposed that if he had spent time in a situation like that, his mind too would seem more real than any reality. But those were thoughts for later.

Now came the hard part, getting back into Eclipse’s mind. Entering her dreams for the first time hadn’t been the easiest thing in the world, and now he was going to have to do it again, but this time Eclipse was even more aware of his presence. Those mental walls were truly formidable. Once again, Iron Fist stretched out his chi energy to feel the dreams of the person in front of him. The walls were definitely stronger than last time.

Honestly, he had expected the walls to now be in one of two states, considering the amount of mental distress Eclipse was in. They would either be extremely weak or they would have been fortified. They were the latter.

Iron Fist stretched out his chi and sensed Eclipse’s fortress of a mind, but there was a small crack in it. He wondered briefly if she had done that on purpose, or if she even knew it existed. But that didn’t matter now, all that mattered was that he had found a way in. He took a breath and expected to step back into darkness and a glassy floor, but he didn’t. A meadow and forest full of color met his eyes instead.

Eclipse stood in that meadow, looking much more composed then she had been a few minutes ago. She turned and faced him, a look of determination on her face. Confidence had started to radiate off of her. Iron Fist raised an eyebrow at the change, but said nothing about it.

“You’re back,” she acknowledged. Eclipse inclined her head slightly in his direction as a nod.

“That I am. I’m glad you’re feeling better. Now, can I have an explanation as to what happened earlier?” It was a reasonable request. Eclipse sighed and looked away.

“Just memories, something you shouldn’t be concerned with,” Eclipse tried to brush off the question.

“Those weren’t memories resurfacing from what I saw.” Dammit, he had seen through her. Eclipse flinched.

“Scars from the past then?” she offered.

“Listen, I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but from what I just witnessed, this is eating you up from the inside.”

“You do realize that if Fury hadn’t thought it a good idea to perform tests on me, we wouldn’t be in this situation. _I_ wouldn’t be in this situation!”

“What do you mean?” Iron Fist asked. There was at least one good thing from that statement, Eclipse did believe that their world was real. Perhaps that’s why she was so confident when he’d come back. She knew he was real. But Iron Fist knew it was just a front.

“Do you ever wonder why I avoid sleep so much? Why even when I need it after a few days, I still keep myself awake? It’s because of that darkness. Because of what I did, a long time ago. It, and she, never leave me alone.”

“Can Enigma escape in here?” Iron Fist had picked up on who the ‘she’ was.

“Not now, but we can interact. I had a particularly, unsettling, conversation with her right before you came. She knows so much more about me than I do,” Eclipse tried to explain. She didn’t think she was doing a very good job of it.

“Then has she told you anything?”

“Not really. But the worst part is that she can pull up memories that I’d buried so deep with essentially a snap of her fingers. I just can’t help but feel that those memories were supposed to stay hidden. Why else would I not remember them?”

“How about the fact that you never had to think of them for a thousand years?” Iron Fist offered as a response to her mostly rhetorical question.

“See, that’s where I think you’re wrong. The more I’ve been awake, the more has come back to me, but at the same time, there’s a huge gap missing,” Eclipse sighed.

“Is it possible that she can steal memories from you? I’m not exactly sure of how you two work together, but that might be a reason why.”

“That’s a thought I’d rather not have. I don’t need any more darkness in me, knowing that I took away part of myself. It’s hard enough as it is knowing what I’ve done.” Iron Fist was not going to get that answer out of her.

“Then what is that darkness? You need light to balance yourself out, and that balance comes from knowledge. You need to know the problem so we can fix it,” Iron Fist reasoned.

“ _You sound like a fucking therapist_ ,” Eclipse growled. Iron Fist cocked his head at the language switch.

“This conversation will go better if I actually know what you’re saying,” Iron Fist tried to reason.

“How do I know you aren’t going to turn around and tell Fury about all this? This always happens! I let my guard down and then people use it against me. You want to know what part of the darkness is?!” Eclipse had begun shouting.

The sky overhead darkened as an eclipse crossed over the sun. If changes in this dream-world weren’t happening so quickly, Iron Fist would’ve found the relation between her name and the actions going on funny. Thunder boomed, but no rain fell. A harsh wind picked up and once again cracks began appearing in the earth. They were silver and gold, matching the color of the stones that was seeping through her clenched fists. Eclipse’s eyes blazed with fury and pain. Her hair had turned a vibrant, deep blue that had started to smoke. She was more than upset, she was breaking down emotionally in front of him.

“You want to know why I hate the dark, why I hate being alone, yet always avoid people?!” Her voice had begun to break. “It’s because my own people hunted me! They tried to kill me! And that was the least of my worries! It’s because of what happened next that I’m so afraid. It’s because of what I did!” Tears had begun to leak from the corner of her eyes. Iron Fist stayed quiet throughout all of this, despite the rapidly changing environment. They had changed locations at least three different times and the time of day at least twice.

“And because of that, I’m terrified of what I can do! I’m afraid of who I can become, so I keep away from people, but that only makes it worse! Why?! Because I know what it’s like to call for help and have no one answer! I know what it’s like to be lost in the dark and never be found or see the light! I know what it’s like to lose all hope,” Her voice trailed off to a broken whisper with that last statement. The world finally stabilized into a huge mountain with a steep, vertical drop right behind Eclipse.

“What, no comment? No ‘you’re going to be alright’?” Eclipse spit out angrily.

“No, because I can’t bring balance to your inner self, only you can do that,” Iron Fist replied calmly. All of what he had just learned was certainly useful, but that would be looked at later.

“Then why are you still here? How have you not been pushed away by all that I’ve said?”

“Because I have faith that you know what you’re talking about. I’m not here to make decisions for you about your life. And I think you going out on some field work with others would do you good. After all, that is the whole reason why I’m here.”

“I had a feeling that Fury was spying on me,” Eclipse commented. “And that he’s the reason I’m asleep right now. But my question from before still stands.” Eclipse had become more forlorn at this point. Her hair still remained that same shade of deep blue that looked as if it was pulling in all the light around it. Her trust had been shattered once again.

“I’m still here because you haven’t pushed me away. You could’ve forced me out of your mind a long time ago or not even let me come back. For all that you say you hate all of us, you haven’t given me any reason to believe that you hate me.” Iron Fist explained.

“Don’t test me. If you hadn’t allowed Fury to perform this test on me, I wouldn’t have to be dealing with all the guilt and suffering and complete darkness that came with this experiment of his.”

“Yes, but here you are now, and I think this has been good for you, coming to terms with your problems. You keeping all of this inside you isn’t healthy.” Eclipse groaned at this and rolled her eyes. She seemed to have calmed down and no longer looked distressed. Iron Fist did wonder how she changed emotions on a flip of a coin, but he suspected she had become an adept at hiding her emotions and showing people what they wanted to see. All that darkness and fear and distress must be what she always kept on the inside.

“So, did I pass this little test of Fury’s?” Eclipse asked bitterly. Parts of her hair started to flash red-orange in annoyance. “Not that I really care about his opinion, but I do want to be able to get out of the Academy. All these walls are driving me up them. If I don’t get out soon, I’m about to start destroying things.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that, but I should be able to find a way for you to leave some. I’m going to leave and then work about waking you up, okay?” Eclipse nodded and Iron Fist.

“I hope you can wake me up,” she murmured. Iron Fist didn’t hear. He waved and slowly vanished from her mind.

* * *

 

“So, do you have a final report for me, Danny?” Coulson asked. He wholeheartedly agreed with the decision that what was found on Eclipse should be brought to him and not Fury. Fury didn’t need to have that sort of leverage over someone as powerful as Eclipse.

“I do, and I’m worried about it. I woke her up about an hour ago and she left right away for training. I wouldn’t get in her way unless you want to get hurt. She looked like she was going to go annihilate all of the training equipment, that is to say, she isn’t pleased about what happened. We also need to keep Cho away from her, he’ll only make it worse and she’ll likely beat him senseless,” Iron Fist said. Coulson nodded at that truth.

“Was she mad at you at all?”

“Not now, but she knows about the whole plan that Fury had.”

“How? I knew that no one else knew about it. But that’s besides the point right now, do you have a recommendation? I know that you’re still a student, but your abilities are better at evaluating people like Eclipse,” Coulson noted. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary.”

“And I understand that, sir. Just make sure Fury doesn’t try to do this again. I don’t enjoy dreamwalking.”

“I’ll remember that. Fury needs to get in his head that you are all Academy students, future superheroes, not S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at his disposal. That being said, what’ve you got for me.”

“The first thing I noticed was how powerful her mind really is. Her resistance to any kind of intrusion is incredible. And she knows if someone is trying to get in, so we made the right call of not having Professor Xavier come for this test. The second part, however, is concerning. I did some research before I got here about what I thought her lack of mental stability would be called.”

“Danny, you know that isn’t your job,” Coulson argued. If Iron Fist was doing more than necessary to get this report ready, then what he found must’ve really been important.

“I know, sir. But based on what I saw, I needed to know the right name, or rather names, for what is happening inside her. It’s worse than we first thought,” Iron Fist noted.

“I’m not surprised. The initial report made on her suggested more at her just being confused and having to adjust to new surroundings. How much worse is it?”

“To put it simply, she probably has a mix of mild PTSD, psychosis, and rapid mood swings on top of that. I looked up symptoms for all of these, and they seem to match. Whatever is going on inside her, it’s consuming her. All of this darkness, as she called it,” Iron Fist reported. Coulson sighed. It was hard to judge Eclipse’s mental state based on the color of her hair, especially since none of them knew how the accurately the colors represented her current emotions.

“Are you sure? Because I know this isn’t something you’re familiar with and that you might not have even seen the truth,” Coulson pointed out.

“Sir, I am able to tell if someone is being honest with me when the aura pouring off of her was screaming ‘this is the truth’,” Iron Fist accented the last part with his fingers.

“That’s good to keep in mind. I’m assuming that you think we should keep her here for further evaluation?” Coulson proded. He knew that wasn’t the truth and Iron Fist knew it to, but this was to get further thoughts out of him.

“I don’t. She needs to get out more and this will help keep her grounded in the fact that the world she is in right now is real, not one that she made up in her mind. I mentioned psychosis, and her not believing in reality might be a form of it.”

“Well, thank you very much for performing this test for me, Danny. I’ll work on getting her out of the Academy more.”

“Thank you very much, sir. But don’t try and have her talk about what’s going on inside her, it’ll only lead to more problems,” Iron Fist quickly reminded as he began to walk out of the room. Coulson nodded once again and shut the door to his office.

* * *

 

Another drone exploded in front of Eclipse in the training room. After being released from the psyop test, she’d rushed here in a blind fury. They had NO IDEA how hard she worked to even begin to start to trust people again. The only reason she trusted Peter and Shuri, and to some extent, Tony, was because of the fact that her powers had copied enough of them in the very beginning when she’d first arrived on Earth.

Eclipse had latched onto them almost immediately and the extent to which their powers had been copied by her were far greater than that of anyone else. Frankly, it was an accident that that happened. Peter had all but lived in Eclipse’s head for the few days from her replicating his English language speaking abilities. She knew more about Peter then he knew she did, and she intended to keep it that way. She also trusted Shuri for most of the same reasons. While she didn’t completely trust Tony, she trusted him a hell of a lot more than she did some of the other students, even. That reasoning remained a wild card for her, and it was one she didn’t want to be forced to play and rely on.

Speaking of her trusting students, that trust had just been shoved through the floor and completely out of sight. Not only had she NOT BEEN INFORMED of the tests that occured, they had helped! It was too late for her once she realized that her food had been drugged earlier that day. And in the beginning of that medically-induced sleep, she’d been able to sense her surroundings to know that a good amount of the students had indeed helped in setting up the tests. Great job, Fury.

And on top of that, Eclipse had woken back up, in a sense, inside her own mind, where she had just spent the last one thousand years! So of course that felt more real than the Academy, which led her to not even trust herself! Eclipse used this lack of trust and turned it into anger instead of fear. She really didn’t need anymore anxiety right now.

Which brought her to now, standing in front of a pile of blazing training drones, her hair a fiery, blood red that sparked and smoked. Her eyes reflected the flames and if fire could come out of them, there would be even more flames by now. In other words, she was royally fucking pissed at everyone.

The only other thought in her head in that moment was that she was glad she’d been able to pick up on curse words. They were quite expressive and really described how she felt in most situations.

Eclipse let out a deep growl and stabbed the heated blade of her glaive into the nearest drone. They were all too weak and she needed to fight something real! Any normal solo routines would drive her mad and her darkness couldn’t be fought off with any weapon that she cared to create. Too bad all of the drones were gone. She’d set to work on them right as she walked into the room, using whatever power combinations she could think of.

So, having nothing else to fight, she continues to glare down the flaming pile with enough rage dripping from her gaze to make it explode. Which is when a new thought came to her. Could she make something explode with her powers without having to use physical motions with her hands? Honestly, she thought of the strangest things when angry, but she tried it anyways. She continued to glare at the drones, but this time she shoved her spatial powers into it, willing it to explode.

She had to admit, she couldn’t think of anything more satisfying than watching something seemingly spontaneous combust through the heat of her stare. That put a very savage grin on her face. The explosion it made was quite pretty. And loud. Louder than she thought it would be; the deep booming resonance and the vibrations she could feel with her spatial powers rattled around in her head.

That was just great because now she had a headache on top of her boiling anger. Eclipse shook her head and backed up a ways. After a brief moment of thought, she yanked the tracker off of her belt that S.H.I.E.L.D. had placed on her. She’s originally found it a few days after it had been installed when the thing had started transmitting. It was particularly hard to ignore a buzzing vibration that was physically attached to oneself. She’d brushed it off as a mandatory part of being a student, but now she saw it as more proof that she wasn’t to be trusted. She threw the cursed thing into the fire. Triumph continued to show in her eyes as the fire blazed on.

“I’d wondered how long it would be until you finally snapped out at S.H.I.E.L.D.,” a voice from somewhere behind her. If Eclipse had actually been paying close attention, of course she would’ve recognized the deeper, slightly pissed off sounding, voice.

She whipped around and glared down whoever had dared to intrude on her. She pulled her power back at the last moment before she made Scarlet Spider combust. Needless to say, that would have been very bad. He didn’t seem to notice that he had almost been killed.

“Unless you’ve come to support the cause of ‘S.H.I.E.L.D. is the one of the worst things to happen to my life’ or come and physically fight me and get your ass kicked, fuck off!” Eclipse half shouted at him.

“Called it. S.H.I.E.L.D. can suck if for all I care. After all they’ve done? Yeah,” Scarlet confided. Eclipse noticed his voice soften from his usual gruff tone, however.

“I know you were there, you do realize that, right? Why should I have any reason to believe you?” Eclipse shot back.

“You don’t. And I don’t even trust you. The only reason I’m here is because the building is on fire,” Scarlet retorted.

“Fair point,” Eclipse acknowledged. As she was talking, she felt her anger start to diffuse. Perhaps it was because she was talking with someone who had a very similar relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. and people in general as she did. The red in her braid started to dull and wash out, leaving behind a sullen black.

“I don’t even know why I bothered to show up in the first place,” he grumbled. “Not my responsibility to deal with you punks.”

“Maybe because you were interested to see who was trying to burn S.H.I.E.L.D. to the ground?” Eclipse suggested. It wasn’t necessarily a friendly tone, there was a little snark mixed in.

“More seeing who it was so I know who to avoid. I’ve seen S.H.I.E.L.D. burn once and I don’t want to see HYDRA come back again. Besides, we avoid each other enough as it is that it won’t be a problem.” Scarlet started to get annoyed at the rambling and regretted even coming to the training room in the first place. 

“I hope you realize that it isn’t personal. You’re one of the few people here I actually tolerate. I get you, not trust you because I rarely do that with anyone, but I get you,” Eclipse quickly explained. Scarlet was the kind of person that Eclipse felt extremely connected. He was someone with a seeming similar past to hers, with the trust issues and all.

“Well, you don’t get me, alright?!” Scarlet snapped suddenly. Eclipse knew her comments must’ve riled him up. She kept her facial expressions as hard as a rock, unmoving in the face of this spitting spider.

“Who’s to say I don’t?” Eclipse countered.

“You’re just the same as the rest of them, trying to make friends with me and getting me to be less hate-filled. As if that fixes anything!”

“I’m agreeing with you wholeheartedly. And for the record, I’m not trying to make friends. I’m trying to understand someone else who has a very similar relationship with most of the people around us,” Eclipse stated. She crossed her arms and glared at Scarlet Spider, but there wasn’t much anger in it. That answer stopped Scarlet in his tracks.

“Really? You’re just the same as the rest of them. And it’s always a mistake trusting me. Always.” His tone was full of disbelief.

“Then don’t call it trust or friendship. Call it understanding,” Eclipse decided. Once again, she had no idea where this newfound need for empathy came from. Perhaps it was the need to know someone else in this world had had their trust shattered on numerous occasions. While she couldn’t see it, she felt Scarlet studying her face intently.

“You’ll regret this,” he said as he walked back over.

“Maybe, but to be honest, I don’t think I will.” Eclipse held out her hand. Scarlet grasped it. He nodded at her and she nodded back. Was it the beginning of a friendship? At this point Eclipse didn’t care. At least now she had someone on her side who wouldn’t try and defend S.H.I.E.L.D. to her. And that was something she could live with.

* * *

 

“Status update: Project Eternal. Modify plans to accommodate possible resistance to standard HYDRA brainwashing. Increase observed power levels on subject by 50%. Note that subject has more advanced hyper senses than originally observed. Immediate action on Project Eternal not recommended. Standing by for next mission report. Hail HYDRA.” The transmission from inside S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy ended, the line and conversation unrecorded and untraceable.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out a little longer than I originally thought, but what did you think? This was another of the original ideas that the story was based around in the first place. Side note about the mental disorders mentioned: I used Google, but they're mainly used to give names to symptoms Eclipse experiences in this chapter (and some of the others to be honest). While two of the three are obvious, psychosis symptoms are when a disconnection from reality is felt, which fits what Eclipse feels. This, however, does not mean she has these disorders. It's called Iron Fist wanted an official name for what he observed. If I'm wrong about some of these, please let me know. Again, I used the brief descriptions I found online. 
> 
> So, the next chapter I'm SUPER excited for!! I had to flip the orders of some chapters so this one could be next, but it doesn't change anything plot wise so we're all good! It's going to be ~in the greatest city in the world!~ (I'm sorry. Hope you get that reference!)
> 
> Anyways, see you next time! Hope you liked it!


	8. These New York City Streets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> . . .New York City. . .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~I'm back!~ Sorry this is late, I meant to post this a few days ago but I got really caught up with school. I actually had like 80% of this chapter written before Thanksgiving, but then I got sick and school picked back up again. 
> 
> PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ THE END NOTES FOR THIS CHAPTER. THEY ARE VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!! THEY CONTAIN A VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER ABOUT A CERTAIN PART IN THIS CHAPTER!!!!!!
> 
> Side note, take a shot (of something nonalcoholic) every time I make a Hamilton reference. But don't actually use alcohol because I would put you under the table. The count so far is two. . .
> 
> I am fluent in Google Translate, and I would use it (you'll know when) because it will make certain lines said INFINITELY more funny.

An executive decision had been made. Calculus was probably the most boring subject Eclipse had ever had the displeasure of laying eyes on. But honestly, Eclipse had nothing else to read, so here she was, sitting partly invisible in her bunk, reading Iron Spider’s Calculus book that she’d “borrowed” several days ago.

In theory, the subject should be challenging, but Eclipse couldn’t seem to find it so. After all, everything was explained right there in the book. She figured that her copy powers acted like osmosis (she’d read Iron Spider’s Biology book a few days before) and that was why she understood the subject.

It was a three weeks since S.H.I.E.L.D. had snooped around in her head. Three weeks since she’d been allowed in the training room alone. Now, every time she stepped in without someone else who was deemed “responsible”, alarms went off. Eclipse didn’t want to give S.H.I.E.L.D. another reason to try and lock her up, so she stayed out.

They also hadn’t let her step foot outside. So Iron Fist had apparently not kept up his end of the bargain. That ticked off Eclipse to no end. Especially when some of the students, correction, all of them but her, went out to the field on missions. Which meant she couldn’t complain about it to Scarlet Spider. Their pseudo-friendship boiled down to them complaining about S.H.I.E.L.D., the students, and life in general. Neither of them were entirely sure why those conversations kept happening, but Eclipse wasn’t about to question it.

Unfortunately, today was one of those days where everyone was out in the field. Her restriction from the training room meant she couldn’t practice her weapon skills in the open space needed, and even if she did train in the dorms, there was a high chance someone would become very angry about that fact.

Her other option usually was to practice using her copying powers so see how subtly she could both copy and steal someone else’s abilities. These past few weeks really showed improvement in that front, to the point where her power steal almost always went unnoticed by others. But seeing as there was no one else to copy off of, that idea was out the window.

Which brought her to why exactly she was sitting half invisible on her bunk. Eclipse had begun to work on isolating different parts of herself to turn invisible as well as working on how invisible she could make herself. Frankly, that was as boring as the Calculus. She was so bored out of her mind that she never noticed when someone walked into the room. Her brain was just completely blank and she was paying no attention to anything whatsoever.

“Hey! How ya been?” an inquisitive and excited voice asked from right next to Eclipse’s bunk. She started quickly, her invisibility flickering back and forth for a moment before she composed herself and the yellow of shock faded off of her braid. Before her stood none other than Peter.

“Gods above, don’t you know not to sneak up on people?” she accused with mock anger. She lightly bonked him on the head with the textbook. He rubbed that spot, but he wasn’t hurt.

“I didn’t think I’d be sneaking up on you of all people! I thought the others would be here too, but clearly not,” Peter commented, sounding almost down-hearted. Eclipse sighed and hopped down from her bunk.

“They’re all out in the field training. I’m currently on probation from even setting foot outside, let alone in the training room alone. I swear, this might be the only place where I don’t have actual people openly watching my every move,” Eclipse complained. Peter patted her arm sympathetically.

“I hadn’t heard. I haven’t exactly been in the loop with stuff at the Academy. School life’s been really busy and between that and Spider-Manning, I haven’t really had time. But now it’s the weekend! I thought I’d come and stop by. Shuri’s in town right now, if you want to see her,” Peter offered, a smile playing across his lips. Eclipse brightened at this, she’d missed the spunky Wakandan princess. Granted, their friendship made little sense to her (in fact, all of her friendships made little sense), but she suspected one reason they all got along so well was because of the fact that Shuri and Peter reminded Eclipse of who she used to be when she was their age.

Excluding all of the time in her crystal, Eclipse figured she was probably closer to a year and a half older than both of the teens. She’d initially thought she was younger when she’d first arrived, but with the return of some of her memories, she figured that she was closer to eighteen than seventeen.

“I’d love to see her!” Eclipse grinned, her hair turning a brilliant purple.

“Great! You might want to change clothes though, we aren’t staying here,” Peter advised.

“Peter, what’ve you got planned?” She questioned.

“Something exciting! Wear normal clothes, we don’t need to cause any more strange looks from anyone!”

“Wait, what? I’m not the one who runs around in a red and blue spandex suit!” Eclipse exclaimed. She just pretended to be offended at the comment. Peter snorted at this.

“Well, unfortunately for you, I know S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol, and I also know that Shuri shipped you some regular clothes two weeks ago. Looks like you are S.O.L!” Peter grinned. Eclipse rolled her eyes at this comment before beginning to push him out of the room.

“If you want me to get changed, you’ll have to give me some privacy!” Eclipse laughed as she shut the dorm room door on Peter’s face. She could hear him giggling from behind it.

She walked back over to her bunk and the trunk she kept beside it now. When she first got here, she had no need for it, seeing as she didn’t really own anything, but now it held clothes, both S.H.I.E.L.D. issued and from Shuri, and a few other S.H.I.E.L.D. items.

Eclipse pulled out a pair of pale blue jeans, a tealish floral shirt that was rather flowy and had half sleeves, and a pair of silver flats. Once her regular battle armour and such was off and safely stored in the trunk, she changed clothes. In the end, the jeans got rolled in a style that she’d seen both Shuri and people on the Internet wear.

Luckily, Eclipse had redone her hair yesterday, and the resulting style made her hair seem much shorter than it actually was. She braided it into a crown around her head before tying the rest off in a ponytail. Her hair was slightly puffy and curly from the usual braid, but it wasn’t too bad.

Eclipse spent a few moments reorganizing her trunk and then shoved her phone in her pocket. Honestly, why did S.H.I.E.L.D. issue all of their “normal” clothes in black leather? The goal was to NOT draw attention. She walked over to the door to let Peter back in. He practically stumbled in, as if he’d been leaning on the door. Eclipse smirked at him as he tripped and fell.

“Comfortable?” she asked with a wicked grin. Peter moaned from the floor. “You know, for being Spider-Man, you aren’t very coordinated.”

“Shut up,” Peter replied from the floor. Eclipse took some pity on him and used her powers to help lift him off of the ground. “Thanks.”

“So, you haven’t exactly told me where we’re going. Because if you came all the way over here just to have me change clothes, then that’s ridiculous.”

“No, I came over here so Shuri, Ned, MJ, and I could go and take you around the city!” Peter answered excitedly. Eclipse raised an eyebrow.

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Because you love me? And it means you’ll get out of the Academy?” Peter tried. Eclipse smiled back at him.

“True that. Wait, we’re going to be around people who don’t know who I am, like a lot of them. Also, I’m pretty sure S.H.I.E.L.D. has labeled me as dangerous, so I can’t have who I really am getting out,” Eclipse thought out loud, worried.

“I wasn’t going to tell them unless you wanted to, but there’s a good chance they’ll find out on their own that you’ve got powers based on the fact that you don’t go to school with us. Have you got something worked out for strangers? Cause no offense, but color changing hair is really noticeable,” Peter explained. Eclipse pondered it for a moment before an idea came to mind.

“I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve been working on different aspects of my invisibility! Watch this!” She held out her hands and focused on the stones there. They slowly faded from sight. Peter’s eyes widened.

“When didja learn to do that?!”

“You’d be surprised what lots of solitary free time can yield to. The same trick should work in keeping the other color off of my hair.” Peter nodded along at this.

“Neat! Now let's get going!” Peter grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room. Another thought came to Eclipse. Last week, Black Widow had come into the Academy to give some lessons on going undercover and blending in. One of those topics discussed was having different names. For literally everyone but her, they all had real names other than superhero names, so that wasn’t a problem.

Which meant S.H.I.E.L.D. assigned her a name for if she ever went out. Looks like it would be getting some use soon after all. It wasn’t a bad name; she rather liked it. Elise Lia.

“Peter, if we’re going to be around people, you need to use a different name for me. Don’t worry, I’ve been given one and it isn’t half bad. It’s Elise Lia, so when the inevitable introductions come, you’ve got something to call me,” Eclipse said.

“Makes sense,” Peter agreed. “But I’ll just call you E’. It’s a nice nickname and keeps things less confusing.” Eclipse nodded and they continued toward the door again.

“So, do you have a plan for what we’re doing outside of the Academy?” Eclipse asked as they started down the hallway. Peter grinned. He nudged her shoulder with his. It was kind of awkward considering that she was slightly taller than he was.

“You,” he waved around his arm in an extravagant flair. “Are getting the full New York Experience!” Eclipse gave a good natured eye roll and they continued on.

“Gods help us all.”

* * *

Peter half dragged Eclipse up to a little park on the Manhattan waterline. Once they’d made it to the city, Eclipse immediately regretted her choices. She would’ve been fine to stay on the Academy’s island. All she really wanted was to go outside and see the sky. She never would’ve done it if she’d realized the sheer amount of people and noise that accompanied the sprawling city.

It made her spatial senses hum with all of the motion occurring on so many different levels. Sound, people walking by her, all of the technology waves. She really hoped she wasn’t going to get a headache.

But thankfully Peter being used to all of the commotion helped soothe her nerves. He never felt her copy that calmness from him and that was what really kept her sane in that moment. It let her keep up her disguise of normalcy, otherwise her hair would’ve been a bright mix of green and titanium blue. Her being made generally uncomfortable by what was going on and stress.

“Peter, there you are! I was wondering what took you so long to get here!” Shuri exclaimed. She had on a NASA long sleeve shirt and denim shorts, her hair up in two buns on her head. She grinned when she saw Eclipse. “Elise, it’s good to see you again!” So that’s who Peter was texting on the way over. That made her life a little easier. Eclipse waved back.

“You didn’t tell me you were bringing someone else, Peter,” A darker skinned, though nowhere near as dark as Shuri’s, with dark brown, curly hair commented. Her voice sounded slightly dead, but Eclipse sensed the humor in it.

“I thought we agreed not to keep secrets anymore. Not since the whole _Spider-Man thing!_ ” A larger boy with tanned skin and black hair stage whispered at the last part. Peter faked a look of shock and then laughed.

“MJ, Ned, I was going to make it a surprise!” He whined. MJ, seemingly, rolled her eyes.

“So are you going to tell us about your new friend, cause clearly Shuri knows her too,” MJ pointed out. Both Peter and Shuri started to speak at the same time, but Eclipse cut them off.

“I’m Elise. I met Peter and Shuri over the summer when I moved to New York.” Eclipse waved at them. MJ took her hand and shook it. Eclipse’s eyes widened slightly at the contact; she knew that MJ would be able to feel the eternity crystals. MJ only cocked an eyebrow slightly, but she didn’t say anything. Eclipse let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“How’d you guys meet?” Ned interrupted. Peter’s eyes darted around quickly before Shuri answered.

“She was in the same design summer camp that we were both in,” Shuri explained. MJ looked as if she didn’t believe Shuri, but Ned seemed to buy it.

“I really wanted to go to that camp, I’m really jealous now!” Ned grinned back at Eclipse.

“So, I thought we could give her a tour around the city, but the right way,” Peter blurted out.

“You mean the way that involves a large amount of Pokémon GO,” MJ called him out.

“You act as if there’s another way to do this,” Shuri argued amiably. She pulled out her phone. Peter and Ned did the same.

“There isn’t!” both Ned and Peter exclaimed at the same time. Eclipse snickered at this.

“So, where to first?” she asked to the group. She was glad that the conversation had shifted off of her for the time being.

“I was kinda thinking we hit some of the more well known spots first and then maybe work our way around to the Sanctum? We haven’t seen Strange in awhile,” Peter thought out loud. Shuri nodded along.

“And after that, we can stop by _the best_ coffeeshop!” MJ added. The other three, not including Eclipse made noises of agreement.

“First stop: The PokéStop by the Statue of Liberty. It’s the closest,” Ned pointed out. All five of them started walking along the railing that bordered the waterline.

“Any other places we want to go to? It’s been a little bit since I’ve truly been in the city, so I wouldn’t mind if we went all around to some of the more popular spots,” Shuri noted.

“Well then we better get started!” Peter waved his arm around in a broad, sweeping gesture, taking in all of Manhattan behind him. This time, all five of them laughed before they started walking again.

Eclipse swore they must’ve stopped at least every five minutes on the way to the statue, but she didn’t really mind. The sun was bright in the clear blue sky and a soft breeze blew off the ocean. Shuri insisted they all take pictures once they reached the statue, and Eclipse happily obliged. They all traded off phones and got pictures and selfies, both serious and not, with each other.

All the conversations they’d had so far focused on wild tales of what all the group of friends, again, not Eclipse, had gotten up too at some time or another. Eclipse laughed along with them and could see why Peter liked his friends so much. They were the kind of people she would’ve been friends with if given the chance in her home dimension.

She was glad that the talk stayed focused not on her, that way she wasn’t having to make up extremely awkward and bad responses. She had the feeling that MJ probably knew and Ned suspected who Eclipse really was, but they never said anything.

Other than that, most of the words said involved Pokémon GO. Eclipse, unfortunately or not, she hadn’t decided, knew exactly what was the app was, she just didn't participate. She was more than happy just taking in the sights of the city. Once she got over the sheer size and noise of it all, it was quite beautiful. Sun glistened off glass windows and the water, little spots of green popped up every so often in the form of parks.

After the statue, they turned inward and started navigating the city streets and all of its people. Taxi cabs whipped around tight corners at breakneck speeds, people constantly bumping into each other as they walked on these New York City streets. It felt so alive, and Eclipse loved the feeling. They passed more shops and restaurants than Eclipse could count and all of the buildings looked as if they touched the sky.

They walked and talked and laughed throughout their entire walk to Times Square. All four of the teens threw out ideas of where they should go next. Eclipse said it didn’t matter to her, they knew the city better than she did. Shuri suggested the Hershey store, Peter wanted to go check out the newest games at the Nintendo store, and Ned said that the new Millennium Falcon Lego set was out and that THEY ABSOLUTELY HAD TO GET IT. His words, not Eclipse’s.

MJ decided they should go to the Hershey store first, and visit Rockefeller Center when they went to the places Peter and Ned wanted to go to. Shuri thought that they should at least lay eyes on Radio City Music Hall, even if they didn’t go in. Peter agreed and said that they should hit up Central Park afterwards. It was only eleven in the morning on a Saturday, so it wasn’t like they wouldn’t have time.

Times Square itself was packed with even more people, as if that was possible. Lights from the numerous billboards flashed at every possible moment, sounds pressed in on the group from all around, just like the people did.

They all stopped for a moment and MJ grabbed a candid picture of the group. Eclipse’s ponytail blew in the breeze as she gazed at the sight before her, while Shuri, Peter, and Ned laughed at a joke that Peter told.

“I’ll probably end up drawing it later,” she explained when Eclipse asked about it.

“I’d love to see it once it’s finished,” Eclipse requested.

“I can text you a picture of it if you’ll give me your phone number.” Eclipse handed over her phone and MJ typed it in.

“I hear chocolate calling my name!” Shuri exclaimed. She tried to sprint toward the Hershey store, but there were too many people for that. Peter laughed at her and they all moved across the square at a reasonable pace.

The store itself was massive, but nowhere near as crowded as it could’ve been. Everyone insisted Eclipse should try some samples. She did and found she liked the taste of chocolate. That wasn’t something that was ever served at the Academy. That was a huge mistake on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s part and Eclipse felt as if she’d been missing out. Both Peter and Shuri noticed the look on her face when she tried it and immediately took pictures.

Ned and MJ looked as if they wanted to ask about it, but Shuri gave them the ‘not now’ look. The group ended up spending another half hour in the store before MJ deemed it time to leave. Peter stopped outside the store with the exclamation that there were Pokèmon near that had to be caught. The other three whipped out their phones as Eclipse took another moment to take in Times Square.

It was too crowded in her opinion, but the shops around the outside and all of the posters and such did make it interesting.

“Okay, so I say that we at least take a picture in front of Broadway, and then go to Rockefeller Center. Broadway is iconic, and really, even as a New Yorker, I don’t get to just enjoy being in the city! So MJ, that is one of the reasons why we’re doing all of the touristy stuff.” Peter stuck his tongue out at her. She flipped him off with a smug expression. Shuri cackled at this before dragging the group toward the Broadway sign.

Pictures were taken and Peter did his best to explain the reason why all of the places they were visiting were important, but the others helped him out there. After another pause for Pokémon catching, the group ventured on.

Rockefeller Center, it had been explained, was actually used as an ice skating rink in the winter, but it was too warm for that now. Lots of different shops were here as well and Eclipse wondered if there wasn’t a place in the city that wasn’t occupied by stores and such.

Shuri made a check mark motion with her hands when she saw Radio City Music Hall, as she’d said she would. The group laughed at this again.

“Shuri, you’re acting as if you’ve never been in the city before!” Ned joked.

“I’m certain Elise hasn’t. You hide it well, but I’m good at observing and you stare at a lot of this,” MJ criticized lightly. Eclipse turned a little red and did her best from then on to not be so obviously gazey.

And who could blame her? It was a lot to take in. Besides, both Peter and Ned practically had their faces shoved through the glass at the new displays at the Lego store.

Eclipse snickered when MJ grabbed them by the ears and hauled them away, claiming that they still had more to do. Eclipse decided that she liked MJ. She was all down to business, but still had some humor to her.

On the walk to Central Park, she continued to ponder these strange friendships she’d formed. The obvious age gap (in more than one way) still bothered her, but not as much as it had earlier in the day. She now sat on the fence of whether or not she could let it slip about who she really was. If she actually wanted to participate in the conversations instead of just passively listening it would be a good idea. So far, she’d just assumed that MJ and Ned thought of her as quiet and reserved, but both Peter and Shuri knew that once she started talking, she had quite a personality.

Central Park itself was massive. How could such a colossal stretch of forest, lakes, and meadows exist in the middle of one of the largest cities? It was a breath of fresh air, literally, to walk out of the hustle and bustle of the city and into a more serene area. She visibly relaxed and Shuri giggled at her expression. MJ took a picture of it. Eclipse spied Avengers Tower off in the distance and inwardly cringed, but did her best to forget about it once they entered the park and all of its beauty.

They spent well over two hours exploring the southern side of the park. Eclipse would’ve loved to have spent more time there, and said so to the group. Peter promised they’d come back and have a picnic. He even proposed that they bring some other people from the Academy, though he didn’t use those words.

They all bought ice cream from a vendor and crêpes from another. Eclipse was once again blown away by the sweets and wouldn’t shut up about them all the way to the subway outside of the park. The rest of the group definitely enjoyed it once she opened up more.

The reason they were taking the subway farther south into Manhattan was because it was nearly three in the afternoon and the walk was going to take them some time. Peter had also said that riding a subway was a vital New York experience. Eclipse disagreed on that point wholeheartedly. The spaces were far too cramped for her liking.

The group got off the subway near NYU and walked the rest of the way to Bleeker Street. Why in the world they were going to a specific street in Lower Manhattan, Eclipse had no idea, but she still followed nonetheless.

And then she felt the strange power emanating from a building with an large, odd circular window near its roof. She knew she’d felt it once before, and the prickling of it on the edge of her awareness bothered her to no end. She frowned slightly and wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. Even if MJ and Ned suspected, there were still other people who could overhear her (not so) secret.

Peter ran up and knocked on the large door for the building. Both he and Shuri started bouncing slightly with excitement. The door opened and a red floating cloak peeked out. If Eclipse had been drinking anything, she promptly would’ve spit it out at that moment. Coming face to face with magic and other strange energies was not what she imagined she would deal with today.

The cloak waved them inside. Eclipse hesitantly followed, giving the cloak a glare as she did. If clothing could talk, she could tell it would be very unhappy about Eclipse’s presence in its house. 

“Peter, what in the world have you done now?” A male voice called out from the top of the large staircase that dominated the room. A taller man with almost completely black hair and a short goatee stood there in strange blue robes. The cloak flew up to him and rested on his shoulders. He had that odd prickling coming from him too, though it was much stronger.

“Doctor Strange, we haven’t done anything,” Peter stated, slightly confused. It took Eclipse a moment to realize that she recognized this man. He was present when she’d arrived to Earth. He recognized her a second later. His eyes narrowed in displeasure at this revelation.

“Then why the hell is she here?!” Doctor Strange asked loudly, pointing an accusing finger at Eclipse. “Oh, don’t tell me you didn’t know that one of the most powerful entities on Earth was walking around New York with you!”

“Stephen? Why are you yelling at our guests like that?” A heavily accented voice called from the hallway at the top of the stairs. A larger asian man in red robes walked out from the hallway.

“Wong, so now it isn’t my right to defend the Sanctum from threats? Look who Peter and Shuri just brought in!” Doctor Strange shouted. Wong raised his eyebrows at this.

“I am curious as to why they brought the one who is so similar to a stonekeeper here, but she has not openly attacked anyone. You cannot defend people from threats if there is no threat to be found.”

“I can confirm, Eclipse is not here to threaten the Sanctum,” Shuri cut in with a diplomatic tone of voice.

“And why should we listen to you? For all we know, there could be mind control involved!” Doctor Strange exclaimed. He started making his way down the stairs and power began to gather around him.

“Stephen, confrontation is never the first answer,” Wong reminded calmly. Peter finally stepped forward and started to explain things to Doctor Strange. Their discussion was out of earshot. The conversation happening between Ned and MJ, however, was not.

“Pay up,” MJ demanded with a held out hand.

“Why did I even make this bet in the first place?” he wondered aloud as he dug out his wallet.

“Because you were convinced that Peter’s new friend wasn’t going to be the new student at the Academy. And you lost, so give me my money.”

“Wait, you guys bet on who I was?” Eclipse asked, astonished. Now that they knew who she was, she relaxed the invisibility of her hair color slightly. A muted yellow once again made an appearance at the end of her ponytail.

“Oh, we both did. We made a bet while Peter was picking you up. He said it was a new friend he met over the summer and you fit the description. I also know that Peter doesn’t have many friends so it was pretty clear who you were going to be, even if we didn’t have the exact details.”

“Actually, the bet was whether or not you would show us who you were or if you were going to keep it hidden,” Ned tried to save himself some embarrassment over losing a bet.

“No, you just tried to change the terms of the bet when you realized that I was right,” MJ corrected. Eclipse laughed softly at this.

“I had a feeling that MJ knew, I’m fairly certain that you felt these after all.” Eclipse held up her hand and flashed the eternity crystal there into visibility briefly before hiding it again.

“Well, at least it now means that I can tell you some stories from the Academy and not sound strange about it,” Eclipse brought up. Ned’s face brightened at this.

“If you three are done, we still have a slightly pissed off wizard to deal with,” Shuri interrupted. She did look pleased to see that Eclipse had come to terms with her new friends.

“Doctor Strange, please please please don’t tell Tony!” Peter begged.

“Oh no, he’s not the person I would tell, he’d just agree with you,” Doctor Strange shot back.

“Like father, like son!” Shuri added with a grin. Strange rolled his eyes.

“I still can’t even begin to comprehend _why_ you wanted to bring someone who is on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s watch list out into the city! She can’t be trusted!”

“Neither can S.H.I.E.L.D.!” Eclipse noted, her voice growing slightly harsh. The yellow in her hair slowly turned to a more vibrant shade of red-orange. She wasn’t mad per se, but she was getting annoyed at always being accused of things that she had little control over.

“You do know that there are spells that can discover whether or not a person is being honest?” Wong suggested. Eclipse whipped her head around to fix Wong with a stare at this comment.

“There is no way that I’m going to let you do any kind of magic on me!” she exclaimed. “I can feel all the power that you both share, and I have to say that it isn’t a comforting presence. And neither is whatever stone of power the good doctor currently has around his neck. I remember that from the first day I got here. That power and mine have no business tangling together.”

“You sound like you speak from experience,” Wong prompted. All other talk and what not in the room had ceased.

“That’s because I do. And I’d rather not get into this discussion in front of people who have no place in knowing some events,” Eclipse replied, but slight nervousness was growing in her voice. Wong accepted this comment, but Doctor Strange did not.

“Scared, are we? Of this?” He held up the necklace around his neck.

“Can we not do this today?” Peter asked. His voice cracked as he did so. The rest of the group, aside from the mystics, agreed with him.

“Peter’s right. This was supposed to be a fun day, and getting in the middle of a magic isn’t what I think of as fun. Most of the time,” Ned supplied.

“Really Strange, we brought Eclipse here because we were out and about in the city and thought we should stop by and say hello. If you’re going to act like you have a stick up your ass because you don’t like meeting people with interesting powers then we will be leaving!” Shuri finalized.

Wong outright laughed at this while Strange stood there dumbfounded. MJ waved and they all walked out of the Sanctum as if they hadn’t just pissed off the Sorcerer Supreme.

“That was strange.” Eclipse stated and then paused. “Oh my gods,” she deadpanned. “I just made a pun! You should be so proud of me!” If she hadn’t started hiding her hair color again, it would’ve been bright purple with happiness.

The group held their collective chill at this for about three seconds before bursting out into laughter. They had to stop up by the street corner because Peter was laughing so hard that he couldn’t stand up straight.

“E’, you’ve been spending too much time with Miles and his bad jokes!” Shuri managed to say between breathless laughter.

“On the contrary, I haven’t spent much time with him at all!” Eclipse rebuked loftily. “But never mind that now.”

“Oh, you have _got_ to tell us more stories from the Academy!” Ned pleaded after he had finally calmed down.

“Yeah, it’s not like Peter tells us much anyways, but he hasn’t even been there recently!” MJ accused, poking her finger into Peter’s side. He winced a little before looking sheepish.

“Hey, it’s not my fault that I wanted to spend the school year with you guys!” Peter exclaimed.

“Eww, friendship,” Ned remarked with a fake scowl. Eclipse snickered at this. The group turned on to Mercer Street and started walking again.

“So, where exactly are we going?” Eclipse ventured to ask after they’d been walking in comfortable silence for a time. The only interruptions had been members of the group playfully shoving into each other every once in a while.

“To the best coffeeshop this side of Seattle,” MJ responded.

“But isn’t Seattle on the West Coast? Hey, I know some geography, even if I haven’t lived here for long,” Eclipse quickly defended.

“Exactly, this is the best coffeeshop ever.”

“We’ve passed tons of those already today but okay,” Eclipse resigned.

As they walked Eclipse told some stories of some funny things that had happened at the Academy since Peter had left. The best one by far was Miles nearly setting himself on fire more than once when trying to modifying his web-shooters.

“He’s got Spider Sense, but he doesn’t have common sense!” Shuri joked. She elbowed Peter in the side. “That applies to you too, you know!” Peter looked offended at this, so he did what any mature person his age would do, and stuck out his tongue. MJ took it a step further and ambiably flipped him off. Eclipse snorted at this.

The group continued to troop through the city, but Eclipse still had no idea where they were going. The name that had been begrudgingly dropped when Eclipse explained that she would still have no idea about this store even with the name, was ‘ _Sons of Liberty_ ’. The only odd part about the name was the fact that the ‘y’ was replaced with ‘tea’, making it Libertea.

It took Eclipse a second to realize the connection between the name and the drink, but she did find it clever.

MJ looked up from her phone some time later to pronounce that they were nearing their destination. Ned gave a sigh of relief at this. Eclipse had lost track of time on their walk, focusing more on bonding with her new friends. It was so much easier now that she didn’t have to hide so many secrets.

All was well and good until thunder boomed overhead. Eclipse must’ve jumped at least a foot in the air at this. She’d been so preoccupied that she hadn’t noticed the dark storm clouds start to brew overhead. The sound startled her a great deal and then the rain began to pour down on them. Hard.

It was bad enough that the rain pelting them hurt a little, but Eclipse could feel each individual raindrop in her spatial field as it fell. That really bothered her and made her quite wary because she wouldn’t know if something snuck up on her, not with her senses all blurry from the rain.

Thunder crashed once again overhead and Eclipse booked it away from the group. She was very lucky that she could see their destination up ahead. Surely no one would else would notice if she teleported near the building so she wasn’t in the rain as long?

Eclipse did just that and burst into the brick building bearing the sign ‘ _The Sons of Libertea_ ’.

* * *

 John glanced around Libertea. Not much was going on. Burr left several hours ago and then came back, claiming something along the lines of caffeine being the only thing that was going to save him from a headache.

All three of the Schuylers sat at Libertea’s large table. Angelica had surrounded herself with books and a laptop over an hour ago and hadn’t resurfaced since. Eliza and Peggy talked and passed Eliza’s phone back and forth. Probably arguing over one of Eliza’s many Pinterest boards. Peggy was on her second mocha shitstorm of the day. The sisters had arrived at Libertea later than they usually would, claiming they were dealing with apartment inspections earlier.

John groaned at the thought of that. Inspections were the fucking worst. Alex glanced up from his textbook briefly with a questioning look. John shrugged and Alex went back to reading.

All of the other customers from the early afternoon rush were gone. The only other thing happening was Herc polishing his tea barrels and Laf baking in the kitchen. They were almost out of pumpkin muffins. It was getting close to fall, seemingly.

Today had been pretty fucking boring. Or as boring as a day could be when one dated Alexander Hamilton. That mostly consisted of him and John bumping into each other at every possible moment and them leaning across the bar, essentially draped over each other.

John sighed again and pulled out his sketchbook. He pressed his back against the wall and started to draw Alex. Who else was he going to draw? Alex was damn fine and his boyfriend, John had a right to do so.

Alex noticed what John was doing and shifted ever so slightly so that he was in better light. It was either Alex move or John continue to shift around and be distracting to Alex. They had this down to a science.

Hercules glanced over John’s shoulder and made a disgusted noise about who John was drawing. John elbowed Herc and went back to drawing. Herc eventually retreated to the kitchen with Laf and his baking rather than watch John make heart eyes over Alex.

The only interruption came when thunder crashed overhead. _Loudly_. The noise startled Alex so much that he dropped his textbook. He growled under his breath at this before bending over to pick it up.

John seized the opportunity of a book-free Alex, for the time being, to wrap his arms around Alex. Alex leaned into the embrace before setting his book down on the stool and starting to clean the bar.

John put away his sketchbook and started to fix his hair in the hairnet. Rain continued to pour outside. Burr looked as if he wanted to leave, but the rain clearly changed his plans. John doodled his signature turtle on his cup before making himself a caramel coffee. Alex still claimed the turtles looked flattened, even after being shown numerous pictures of them by John.

Rain continued to pound on Libertea’s windows and thunder still rolled overhead, but the real excitement came when someone exploded through Libertea’s front door. The bells clanged and the door slammed into the wall before bouncing back.

“John, _vous deux connards_ better not be wrecking the store!” Lafayette shouted from the kitchen. Alex cackled at this.

“Wasn’t us, Laf!” Alex called back. He slung an arm over John’s shoulder as they leaned against the bar. “Besides, us two shitheads wouldn’t tear off the door. Probably,” Alex whispered to John. 

John didn’t reply. He was too busy looking at who had just burst into Libertea from the rainstorm outside. A, now soaking wet, young woman with long black hair stood in the doorway, dripping water onto the floor mat. She looked younger than John, but not by too much.

She glared outside at the pouring rain before wringing out her ponytail onto the mat. Well at least it wasn’t on the floor, so that was a plus. John really wasn’t in the mood to mop today. Or any day really.

“Lovely weather, isn’t it?” John commented amiably from his spot on the bar. The woman in front of them now had the attention of everyone in Libertea, save Laf and Herc in the kitchen.

“Really, hadn’t _fucking_ noticed it,” she responded, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Alex snorted. John reached up and gave his hand a squeeze.

“Understandable, I mean it’s not like it’s hard to ignore thunder or anything,” Alex added in. Now it was John’s turn to snicker.

“If I ever have to lay eyes on this shit weather again, I’m going to fucking lose my damn mind!” She finished getting all of the water out of her hair that she could before shaking out her arms.

“I couldn’t agree more. Come up here, what can I get ya?”John waved her up to the bar. She came up and glanced at the chalkboard menu.

On it was a doodle of a _Starbucks_ coffee cup with a huge X through it. A sticky note in John’s handwriting sat under it. It read ‘ _I like my_ Starbucks _how I like my women, I don’t like_ Starbucks _,_ ’. The reason for the sticky note was that it could be taken down quickly if Washington came in. John felt very proud of it.

Other than that, the board displayed all of the specials, drinks and such that Libertea had to offer.

John could tell when her eyes fixed on the sticky note. Her eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch before she looked to John and Alex, whose arms were still wrapped around each other as they leaned against the bar. She glanced back and forth several times before commenting.

“I can tell that.” Alex saw were she was looking and set his head down on the bar’s surface, his shoulders shaking with laughter. John hugged him closer as if to prove a point to their customer. 

“Any recommendations? I’ve never really been to a place like this before,” she asked. John’s jaw dropped. Alex looked up at the now speechless John.

“YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO A COFFEE SHOP?!?!” Peggy screeched from the Schuyler’s table. Eliza leaned forward at this, eyes wide in disbelief. Angelica just raised an eyebrow, clearly interested in what was about to happen. Burr winced slightly from the increase in volume.

He’d sat back down at the bar when the rain had started. John, Alex, Herc, and Laf had all wondered if Burr was some kind of witch and if he would melt in the rain. Burr just glared at them more than usual if the conversation ever came up.

“Peggy, _mon dieu_ , must you scream so loud?” Laf accused from where he had poked his head through the kitchen window.

“Pegs, I thought we agreed that we would stop shouting in Libertea,” Herc tried to reason as he came out of the kitchen. He saw their customer and immediately came over.

The young woman had shifted positions ever so slightly so she was closer to the kitchen door and thus farther away from the screaming Peggy Schuyler.

“So let me get this straight, you’ve never been to anything resembling a coffee shop in your entire life?” John questioned, still in a state of disbelief. He couldn’t imagine a life without some form of coffee.

“No?” she answered. Her tone was slightly sheepish and apologetic.

“That’s a fucking crime,” Herc admitted with a sorrowful tone.

“Hell yeah it is!” Alex exclaimed.

“Well buckle up, ‘cause John Laurens is about to give you the best experience you’ve ever had in your life!” John grinned at her. She smiled back softly.

“I can’t wait,” she replied. She once again looked outside, as if she was looking for someone. “Thought speaking of waiting, my friends should be here soon. It started raining while we were still about five blocks out, but I’m a fast sprinter, so I got here first,” she explained.

“Do any of your friends happen to be related to John’s turtles?” Herc asked incredulously.

“I don’t think so. They weren’t the last time I checked anyways,” she said with a grin. Herc chuckled at this.

“Well, miss whoever you are, if John’s going to be giving you the grand Libertea experience, you should know who we are. Which means we should know who you are as well,” Alex said.

“Alright, my name’s Elise, Elise Lia. I moved to the city recently,” she started.

“Alexander Hamilton. Barista, law student,” Alex started listing off traits.

“And the best damn boyfriend in the world!” John interrupted, planting a kiss on the side of Alex’s head. Elise smiled at the show of affection. Herc made a gagging noise.

“Oh shut up, Mulligan,” Alex shot back.

“ANYWAYS, I’m John Laurens, as you’ve probably guessed. Libertea’s BEST barista,” John bragged. Despite the pretence of giving Elise the coffee experience, he and Alex hadn’t left the bar yet.

“Ego much, Laurens? Nevermind, I already know the answer to that, I don’t need your opinion on it. Hercules Mulligan, I do the teas here,” Herc introduced himself. Elise waved back. Once again, she’d shifted to stand closer to the kitchen door.

John figured it was because the kitchen was warmer and she was still slightly soaked from the rain.

“Laf, get your ass out here! You gotta meet someone!” John yelled toward the back. Lafayette burst through the kitchen doors and ran right into Elise’s back. She stumbled forward a little before regaining her balance.

“ _Merde_ , _excuse moi_!” Laf apologized.

“It’s fine, I was the one standing in front of the door!”

“Damn Laf, I thought Frenchmen were supposed to have class!” Peggy commented and started cackling from her table. Eliza giggled at this, while Angelica just raised her eyebrow again. Burr rolled his eyes and took another sip from his Americano.

“John, is this who you wanted me to meet?” Laf asked. He looked over at Alex and John, realizing the position they were in.

“Laf, this is Elise,” Alex introduced for John. Laf wasn’t listening to him.

“ _Honnêtement, nous avons des clients et vous deux ne pouvez pas garder vos fichues mains de l’autre!_ ” Laf exclaimed wildly in French.

Both John and Alex knew what was being said; they both burst out laughing. John threw his head back while he did so and Alex rested his head on John’s shoulder, which was shaking with laughter. Angelica snickered softly at this. Peggy and Eliza both went to ask what had been said.

“ _S'ils sont comme ça au travail, comment sont-ils à la maison?_ ” Elise quickly wondered, also in perfect French. She grinned wickedly at the three who understood her. Laf blinked for a second before collapsing on the bar, howling with laughter.

John and Alex, who had both begun to catch their breaths, joined Laf over the bar. John let his head fall against its surface as he hit his fist against the bar with laughter. Angelica had chosen that moment to take a sip of her coffee, which she nearly choked on and then almost spit out all over her laptop. Eliza and Peggy found that act hilarious, so now they were both giggling.

Herc just stood there looking confused at the whole situation. Burr looked as if he wanted to leave and that the only thing keeping him there was the fact that it was still raining.

“Damn,” a breathless John finally said. “If your drink wasn’t on the house before, it _definitely_ is now!”

“What did she even say that’s so funny?” Herc asked. John really felt that Herc should take the fucking time to learn some French so he actually had a clue as to what the fuck seventy-five percent of the group was saying.

“Mulligan, you need to learn some fucking French!” Alex exclaimed. He and John were both now sitting up. Laf had yet to recover.

“It’s not _my_ fault that clearly everyone knows that goddamned language!” Herc proclaimed. Elise snickered yet again.

“If it makes you feel any better, he and I were just roasting those two, so it wasn’t about you,” Elise added.

“Actually, that makes me feel even worse! Every time Laf makes a joke like that, I have to ask what it means, which means whatever was just said is now at least ten times _less_ funny!” Herc ranted. Elise raised her eyebrows at this, but the mischievous grin on her face didn’t leave.

“Oh grow up!” John said, slapping Herc’s arm lightly. Herc glared back as Laf finally sat up from the bar. He coughed once, lightly, and recomposed himself. John rolled his eyes.

“Well met, _mon ami_! I really needed that today. Gilbert du Motier, or Lafayette, at your service.” Laf held out his hand to shake. John saw Elise’s eyes darted quickly between the offered hand and her own before she settled at waving to him.

John found it a little strange, but who was he to judge. Except for the fact that their newest customer hadn’t experienced one of the best pleasures in life. Coffee. It was time to fix that.

“I’m glad to see that my bad attempt at a joke was taken so well!” Elise responded to Laf’s earlier comment.

“ _Non_ , your attempt wasn’t bad! John’s on the other hand,” Laf shrugged. John made an indignant sounding noise before grabbing a sugar packet and hurling it at Laf’s head.

“Fuck you!” John stuck out his tongue at Laf. Elise leaned in closer to whisper to Herc.

“Are they always like this?” she asked.

“Oh no, normally they’re worse,” Herc responded with a grin.

“Don’t act you don’t love us!” John popped up in front of Herc to give him his best attempt at puppy dog eyes.

“John, I swear if you make that face again, I’m going to personally shove you into your espresso machine!” Herc threatened.

“He’d fit! I’m sure of it!” Peggy called out after taking a rather loud sip from the bottom of her mocha shitstorm.

“What the hell, Schuyler!” John retorted. He threw up his arms and walked away from the group.

“I’d like to second that opinion!” Elise added. John just stared at her for a moment before collapsing dramatically onto Alex. Alex enveloped him in a tight hug. Angelica finally took pity on him and walked up to the bar.

“If you’re done moping, I need another coffee,” she demanded instead of requesting. Well, that was Angelica for you, all business.

“ ‘m not moping,” John mumbled into Alex’s apron. Laf scoffed at this. John didn’t even look up, he just held up two middle fingers in the general direction of the Frenchman.

“ _Mon ami_ , this is just pathetic. If you don’t,” Laf shrugged, leaving it open for interpretation. “Perhaps Georges will find his way into your bed tonight,” ended up being the suggestion.

“Du Motier, don’t you fuckin’ dare!” John shot up from Alex.

“There he is! Now make me coffee,” Angelica ordered. John grumbled, but refilled the coffee nevertheless. Then he rounded on Elise, who had yet to leave the group.

“Really, I offer to give you the best coffee of your entire life, and this is the thanks I get? And here I thought you were going to be better than these assholes!” John gestured to the rest of the people.

“Oh no, don’t include me in that group,” Angelica quickly said. She retreated back to her table before she got dragged into more arguments.

“Laurens,” Burr warned slightly.

“Sorry about that, but I call it like I see it. The opportunity was there and I took it!” Elise said. She had an apologetic look on her face, but her voice still contained a fair amount of humor. “And believe me, it can get a lot worse.”

“I don’t doubt it. You’ve been here for about a total of five minutes and have managed to roast John in both French and English. You’ll fit in just fine here,” Eliza slid up to the bar to stand next to Elise.

“Thanks, I think,” Elise responded. “And John, I really am sorry about that. If I hurt your feelings, please tell me. I really hope I didn’t overstep any boundaries or anything,” she apologized again.

“Don’t worry about it!” John brushed off with a grin. Eliza was right, Elise fit quite nicely into the Libertea atmosphere. “By the way, this is Eliza. She’s a Schuyler along with Peggy and Angelica over there. Aaron Burr is the grumpy one over there.”

“John, I thought you were going to make _mon ami_ here a drink,” Laf reminded.

“Right. I’d ask what you’d be having, but seeing as you _haven’t even been to a fuckin’ coffeeshop_ , I’ll decide for you!”

“Ah, so that is the reason you called me out. I’ll be right back, the scones I just finished should have finished cooling by now,” Laf declared before he went back into the kitchen.

John leaned on the bar once more and began to stare deeply into Elise’s face. He needed some inspiration to make this, so he was going to do some soul searching on Elise. She stared back at him, her violet-blue eyes equally intense.

“Should I be worried about the staring contest happening up there?” Peggy wondered. John didn’t acknowledge her.

“Nah, she’s just getting the special from John. Or he’s attempting to stare into her soul. I think they’re one in the same,” Herc answered.

“Alright, I think I’ve got it,” John announced.

He spun around and grabbed a hot cup from their stack. He poured in some coffee and added two shots of espresso before putting in several pumps of hazelnut flavouring. Sure, he could’ve used the hazelnut flavoured coffee, but the direct stuff was better. He snatched the bottles of dark chocolate and caramel from their respective spots and then added in a fair amount of chocolate, followed by a touch of caramel.

John stared intently at the drink before stirring it all together. He topped it off with a little whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. The final step was putting one of those new, fancy clear lids for the hot drinks. He wanted Elise to see his whipped cream creation.

During this entire process, John watched Elise out of the corner of his eye. She wasn’t saying anything now, just listening to Herc and Eliza chat. She swayed back and forth and hummed slightly with the rhythm of whatever song was playing through the speakers in Libertea.

That gave him an idea. He grabbed his Sharpie from its cup and got to work.

After a minute or so, he slid Elise’s drink across the bar. On the side was a doodle of an intertwined treble and bass clef with some music notes trailing off the end. Elise noticed this and grinned back at John.

“How did you know I liked music?” she inquired, a small smile playing across her face.

“Just a guess,” John said.

“Bullshit, you watched her,” Alex called him out.

“Damn it, Alex! You can’t give away all of my tricks!”

Alex responded to this by walking over and attempting to rest his chin on John’s head. This failed, of course, because John was a few inches taller than Alex, which meant Alex ended up burying his face in John’s hair. John snuck an arm around the smaller man and pulled him into a side hug.

“ _P_ _utain de répugnant_ ,” Laf muttered when he saw what position the two had assumed as he walked out of the kitchen. He carried a large tray in his hands full of scones. They still had some steam coming off of them and John immediately tried to snatch one. He burned his fingers a little, but they looked worth it.

“Lafayette, I hope you aren’t commenting about your baking, because it looks delicious,” Elise mentioned. And then she took a sip of her drink. John watched with interest to see her reaction.

An entire corner of the specials board was dedicated to the amount of drinks John had made from just looking at a person. A.K.A, the type of drink he’d just made for Elise, the one where he had nothing to base the drink off of other than the person’s face. The current tally mark was eleven, and John wanted to add another one.

“So, what d’ya think of it?” John asked. Alex nudged him in the leg.

“Don’t be rude.”

“I’m sorry, I thought it was in John’s job description that he had to be an asshole all the time,” Herc deadpanned. Laf snickered as he set a scone down in front of Elise.

“If it is, it would explain _so_ much,” Burr sarcastically stated.

“Love you too, Burr!” John called back without turning to face him.

“This is-” Elise took another sip of her drink “-really fucking amazing!” she exclaimed.

“Yes!” John pumped his fist in the air.  “Twelve for twelve, baby!”

Then the bell to the door rang again as four other teenagers stumbled into Libertea. Elise’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at their arrival. None of them were as soaked as Elise had been when she’d burst into Libertea, so clearly the rain had stopped. John checked, it had.

“Elise, I thought the plan was for us to come here all together!” The smaller boy in the group whined.

“I’d apologize, but rain sucks a large amount of ass in general, so I had no plans to stay out in it,” she retorted.

“Here’s to that!” Herc exclaimed.

“You kids make me feel old!” John shouted at the group loudly.

He knew who Peter, Ned, and MJ were. Their decathlon team sometimes came by after a practice. The other dark-skinned girl with them he’d met, but didn’t remember her name. He was usually good with that kind of thing, but he suspected it’d been mentioned very quickly and never spoken of again.

Elise snorted loudly before turning back to John.

“Believe me, I know,” she stated. “I have to deal with them every day.”

“E’, please don’t make that joke,” Peter begged.

“Dammit that joke is funny so I’m going to make it!”

“What joke?” Alex leaned in, interested.

“Oh, the joke about how I’m older than them, so they make me feel old,” she explained calmly. Peter walked over and she nudged him in the arm.

“You’re not _that_ much older,” Peter sullenly replied. Elise grinned back once again, this time with raised eyebrows.

“It’s a long story,” Elise told Alex.

“Where’s Herc?” MJ demanded. “He needs to make me some of whatever tea he’s experimenting with.”

“Bossy much?” Herc inquired, but he did as asked.

“See, the original plan was for us to all come here _together_ so that we could finish out our day in the city _together_ , but clearly that didn’t happen,” Peter said with a small amount of sarcasm.

“Well, you’re just upset that you weren’t the one to introduce me to coffee. I’m sorry that you aren’t a good sprinter,” Elise responded.

“The reason we didn’t get here sooner was because we stopped under an awning until the rain died down,” the dark-skinned girl explained in a light accent.

“Shuri, you guys were just lazy and didn’t have any real motivation to get out of the rain.”

“Well, since we clearly missed the best part of what I had planned today, what do you think of this place, pretty great, right?” Peter asked.

John once again slid off the bar and grabbed another cup. The iced drink he made for Peter was loaded with enough sugar that you could get sick from, but Peter seemed to enjoy it. He gave the drink to Peter, a tiny arc reactor drawn on the side.

Elise noticed this and wiggled her eyebrows slightly at Peter and then subtly winked at John. He had no idea what the inside joke was there.

“Um, guys, I hate to break this up, but it’s nearly 4:30,” Ned interjected.

“So, we’ve still got time,” MJ said from where she stood with her tea.

Elise, however, did not look so calm. A look of panic immediately crossed her face. John swore that part of her hair _turned bright yellow_ for a moment. And then she muttered something softly in something that most definitely was not English.

“Shit! We need to leave now! Oh gods we need to get back before they do! I really don’t need to caught out!” Elise blurted out extremely fast.

“Shuri, you’re gonna have to pay!” Peter exclaimed.

“What? I didn’t even order!”

“John, I hope you can make those drinks really fast because we need to go!” Elise said. She grabbed her scone off of the bar and took a bite of it, as if eating would help calm her down.

“Just a cappuccino,” Shuri quickly ordered. This time, it was Alex who filled it as John swiped Shuri’s card. He only charged for her drink, Peter’s, and MJ’s. All of Elise’s was on the house as a treat for her Libertea experience.

“By the way, Lafayette, the is amazing!” Elise praised partway through the scone she was inhaling.

“ _Merci_ , I’m glad you liked it!”

Alex handed Shuri’s drink to her and the five began to rush out the door. Elise was the last out.

“Thank you so much for everything! It was fabulous, I’ll try to be back next time I get the chance! Bye!” She waved before she ran out the door. Silver flashed in the center of her palm, but when John blinked, it was gone. And then, it looked like she suddenly ran next to the group instead of behind them.

John rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes before he turned back to Alex, Herc, and Laf, who had joined them behind the bar.

“I think we just met a superhero,” Alex stated blankly.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Alex,” Angelica called out from her table.

“You don’t believe me now, but just you wait!”

“Alex, we’ll worry about that later, okay?” John said and kissed him on the temple. John most certainly believed him. After all, strange things had happened over the summer; more than usual. That fact made his day much more interesting.

* * *

Eclipse paid little attention to the inside of the building she’d just ran into. All she knew was that it was named _The Sons of Libertea_ , so she was in the right spot.

Really, the only thing she noticed was someone not visible shouting at the two men behind the counter in a language she didn’t know. She guessed it was French, she’d heard it spoken once, but she wasn’t sure.

She worked on drying herself off and complained about the weather with one of the two men behind the counter. He had dark brown hair in a hairnet and his dark eyes had faint black smudges under them. The other joined in at times, but never removed his arm from around the smaller man. This one had curly brown hair, also in a hairnet, and freckles covered every inch of visible skin.

Eclipse made jokes about the sticky note on the chalkboard and let it drop that she’d never been to a coffee shop. It wasn’t _her_ fault the Academy didn’t have anything remotely resembling coffee and that this was the first time she’d officially been into the city. Needless to say, people were shocked, and she got yelled at by a young woman with dark curly hair in a yellow ribbon for that fact.

That action brought out another, very large, man from what was seemingly the kitchen. He had very dark skin and wore a blue beanie on his head. Another head poked out from the kitchen window, and this one must’ve been the French speaker. He spoke with an accent.

She shifted her position at the bar to be closer to the kitchen for when that other person inevitably came out. She wanted to be able to copy that language so she could know what was being said. And plus, it was warmer by the kitchen. The rain was far too cold for her liking and she’d yet to warm up from it.

Introductions were made, and she now had names to put with the faces. John Laurens, Alexander Hamilton, and Hercules Mulligan. They promised that they were going to give her the best coffee experience of her life. Eclipse wasn’t quite sure if she believed them, but they seemed passionate about what they did, so that took away some of her doubt.

The French speaker was then called out. Eclipse had positioned herself in a way that he’d be forced to bump into her. He did so, and Eclipse copied his French. All that work at the Academy of her copying and stealing powers to the point where no one ever detected it had paid off; the Frenchman merely coughed, which Eclipse had discovered was common.

Armed with this new knowledge, she now understood what he said to John and Alexander. She couldn’t help herself, Eclipse responded to that statement in French, causing everyone but Hercules to promptly die laughing. One of the other customers, a dark skinned girl in a pink shirt with black curly hair, also understood and spit out her coffee with laughter.

Once they’d recovered, the Frenchman with darker skin, but nowhere near as dark as Herc’s, and curly, black hair in a ponytail, introduced himself as Lafayette. He offered to shake her hand. Eclipse declined after a moment. Just because people couldn’t see the eternity crystals didn’t mean that they wouldn’t feel it if she touched someone. That would be an awkward situation even if she knew the person well.

She made some more jokes with the woman with the yellow ribbon and the one in the pink shirt came to order a drink. The casual banter was easy to fall into for Eclipse. She followed it and even joined in at some points, casually insulting John. That particular comment about the espresso machine caused him to visibly deflate into Alexander and Eclipse started to feel bad, wondering if she had gone too far.  

Eventually, the third member of the women’s table came up to the bar and John perked back up. This one in the blue dress was named Eliza, and John told her. The other Schuyler sisters were apparently named Peggy and Angelica, with Peggy being the one in yellow and Angelica being the one in pink. Finally, the man sitting at the end of the bar with chocolate skin and little hair was named Aaron Burr, according to John.

Despite her lack of experience with interacting with strangers in general, her time here was faring quite well. She began to think of these people as ones who she could and, hopefully would, be friends with if she ever got the chance to come back more. Once again, the age difference could prove difficult, but in reality, she wasn’t that much younger than any of the members at Libertea.

Lafayette left for the kitchen to get baking and John claimed that Eclipse’s crime of never being in a coffee shop had to be addressed. He propped himself up on the bar and began staring intently into her face. Not knowing what to do, Eclipse stared back just as intensely.

Hercules announced that John was ‘giving her the special’ and ‘staring into her soul’. While Eclipse felt slightly compelled to comment that she didn’t think she had a soul, she didn’t want to interrupt. Also, she knew for a fact that John wasn’t actually staring into her soul, because she didn’t feel any prickling on her awareness that would let her know that she was.

Then John quickly turned around and started making a drink. Eclipse hadn’t even ordered. Eliza and Hercules started up a conversation about people Eclipse _definitely_ didn’t know. She listened with one ear while she listened to the music playing in Libertea with the other. She didn’t know what the song was, but she found herself unconsciously swaying back and forth and humming to the rhythm.  

John finished the drink off with a drawing in Sharpie of an intertwined treble and bass clef and some music notes coming off of it. Eclipse was surprised she actually knew what those were. Seemingly, sheet music was exactly the same here as it had been in her home dimension. She filed that information away for later. Alexander called John out for watching her as Lafayette came back from the kitchen, baking in hand. He made another rude comment in French about John and Alexander before giving Eclipse a scone.

Eclipse took a sip of her drink and she was blown away. She’d _never_ tasted anything like it, in the best possible way. Once again, curse S.H.I.E.L.D. for keeping some of the best things in life from her. She made the former comment to John, which earned her a huge grin.

Unfortunately, her moment of coffee bliss was interrupted by the entrance of Peter, Shuri, Ned, and MJ into Libertea. She and John joked back and forth about the teens making them feel old. Eclipse fiddled slightly with her bracelets as she said it, something she hadn’t managed to take off yet, a constant reminder of her increased age. Peter complained that Eclipse was supposed to wait for them, and Eclipse responded that rain was the worst, so why should she wait for it to stop when she could get here ahead of them?

Just when Eclipse thought things had calmed back down again when Ned announced the time. 4:30. That shocked Eclipse so much that she couldn’t keep hold of the invisibility of other colors on her hair. Bright yellow flashed across her ponytail quickly, but she managed to get it back under control. She hoped no one had seen.

She glanced back and John looked to be blinking slightly at what had just happened. But at this point, she couldn’t bring herself to care. The Academy students were due back any minute, which spelled out trouble if they returned and S.H.I.E.L.D. found she was missing.

Eclipse blackly muttered curses under her breath in her own language. She dreaded the consequences that might occur. She yelled at Peter that they had to leave, who yelled at Shuri that she had to pay, after starting to devour her scone. It was as good as the coffee. She told Lafayette as much as the group rushed out the door.

She waved at everyone as she left and once again made the mistake of letting her powers slip. She was falling behind of the group and she really needed to leave. The silver eternity crystal revealed itself as she waved and people most definitely saw it. No time to fix that now. She quickly teleported a few feet so she caught up with the group. Eclipse really hoped none of the others noticed it, but knowing her luck, they probably had. She just hoped they wouldn’t make the connection, but Eclipse didn’t think that they would do anything bad about it.

While her impressions of people weren’t always spot on, everything that she’d seen at Libertea just told her that the people there wouldn’t be the type to go and panic over something so small. No one else even mentioned what had possibly happened, and Eclipse was grateful for that. She knew she’d messed up, but with any luck, no one would call her out on it. Those were the main thoughts that encompassed the entire journey back to the Academy.

There was quite a lengthy farewell with Ned, Peter, MJ, and Shuri, but Eclipse didn’t mind. She was glad to now have some friends who were now on her side, as most of the Academy didn’t seem to think that way. She expressed her desire to see them again soon, whenever she could escape the Academy once more.

“I’m sure I’ll see you again soon,” Peter told her. “After all, fall break is pretty soon!” Eclipse just grinned back at him before quickly teleporting across the bay onto the island where the Academy stood.

After a mad teleportation dash back to the dorms, Eclipse quickly got changed back into her armour. It wasn’t like the teleportation actually took any time, the only delay was Eclipse looking of where she wanted to go next, but she didn’t know if she’d beaten the students back or not.

Luck, for this at least, turned out to be on her side, as the dorms were still empty. Not three minutes after she’d settled back onto her bunk, however, the students came in. They looked exhausted and Eclipse didn’t envy them in the least. Her only wish was that her pseudo-house arrest finished soon so that she could leave without consequences. Who was S.H.I.E.L.D. anyways, telling her what she had to do every waking moment. They had no right to be controlling her life and she felt that they were overstepping their boundaries. She kept that thought to herself, but her distaste with the organization still grew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> READ THIS DO NOT SKIP IT PLEASE
> 
> Well, that happened. Please tell me you didn't actually drink. That would be bad. 
> 
> Fun fact!: Mercer Street is actually located off of Bleeker Street. Google Maps said so. Also, Hamilton Reference there!
> 
> So, about the Libertea part. THAT IS NOT MY STORY WHATSOEVER!!!!!!! These are not my characters that I created, they are completely based off of Sons of Libertea by fihli. I will post a link to it at the end of the notes. Go read it, it's so amazing! It's probably one of the greatest fan fictions I've ever read. Also important: I DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO USE THIS STORY IDEA AT ALL!!!!!! I'M CREDITING IT HERE, BUT IF SOMEONE GETS UPSET ABOUT IT PLEASE TELL ME AND I'LL TRY TO WORK IT OUT!!!!!!!! I just read that story and thought it would fit in perfectly with what I had planned for this chapter. My interpretations of the characters are nowhere NEAR as good as they are in the original story, but I did try to keep them in character. 
> 
> This will probably be the only time that these characters appear, hence why I'm not tagging them, the story, or the fandom. They may appear briefly later on, but I'll do the same thing as I'm doing here if that turns out to be the case. In case you were wondering, the last chapter of Libertea isn't canon for mine because that would mean I really wouldn't be able to write them as I did here. 
> 
> Yes, my life has gotten to a point where I'm writing fan fiction about fan fiction. I have other ideas that are like this, but they will never be posted here because I don't have permission from the author's to do so. That being said, I'm quite hesitant to post this chapter because I don't have permission, but I am giving credit to the original work. Please don't be mad at me, I'm really writing just to make myself happy.
> 
> On that note, a crucial announcement! Updates will be slowing down significantly. There will probably not be a new chapter posted before the new year, as December is extremely stressful for me with exams and all that. And then it'll be Christmas and New Years, so yeah, I'll be busy. And looking ahead at the next year, I'll be pretty busy as well. I'll write when I can, but I'm not going to push myself to post at the end of the month, as has been the trend. I'd rather have chapters take longer and be better written.
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading this story! It means so much to me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life! This is by far my favorite chapter, the second being either chapter six or seven. 
> 
> This chapter was 33 pages long.
> 
> CREDITS TO A STORY THAT IS MUCH BETTER THAN MINE AKA SONS OF LIBERTEA: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6052915/chapters/13876744  
> PLEASE GO READ IT. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!! I finished it in three days the first time I'd read it and drew art for it before I'd even finished the story. In case you were wondering, it was a drawing of a Libertea cup of coffee by John.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I hope to see you at the next chapter!
> 
> Edit: Translations for those who are wondering are in order:  
> vous deux connards= you two shitheads (or assholes)  
> mon dieu= my god  
> Merde, excuse moi= shit, excuse me  
> Honnêtement, nous avons des clients et vous deux ne pouvez pas garder vos fichues mains de l’autre!= Honestly, we have customers and you two can't keep your damn hands off each other. *That one's my favorite*  
> S'ils sont comme ça au travail, comment sont-ils à la maison?= If they are like this at work, how are they at home? *Also a favorite*  
> mon ami= my friend  
> Non= no  
> Putain de répugnant= fucking disgusting  
> Merci= thank you


	9. Partners Doesn't Mean Teamwork

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'I look forward to our partnership.'
> 
> 'Our - partnership?'
> 
> 'As your team mate!'
> 
> 'Ha! Yeah right,'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back at it again with more references! And no surprise, it's from Hamilton! I make one or two in this chapter, but it was really coincidental that they worked out. 
> 
> If you ignore the fact that it's February, this chapter is right on time! If I ever have to hear the word 'backstories' again I might just lose my mind. So, to make up for the fact that I'm nearly three months late, I have gifted you with the most lengthy chapter at 36 pages. This is also probably the most plot-heavy chapter, so please ask questions if you need them. Enjoy!

“Miles, no matter how many times you try, it isn’t going to work! It’s physically impossible!” Eclipse managed to get out through bursts of laughter.

“But I don’t understand why it doesn’t work for everyone!” Miles complained.

“Give it here,” Eclipse held out her hand. It wasn’t really a command, but more of a warning to Miles. The deactivated hilt of her weapon (in its standard sword form) pulled itself from Miles’s grip and sailed across the room to Eclipse’s hand.

Miles had once again been attempting to activate Eclipse’s weapon but to no avail. While she still was on bitter terms with a fair amount of the Academy students, she and Miles had bonded once again. The only ones she would still refuse to speak to were Iron Spider, for no other reason than he was still acting like an entitled little bitch, and wouldn’t get over himself enough to admit that Eclipse was an actual person and not an object; and Iron Fist. She still hadn’t forgiven him for enter her dreams without permission, and not only that, spilling numerous secrets to S.H.I.E.L.D. about her, which then led her to nearly go on a warpath against them all.

“Miles, my weapon only works for me because the crystal inside reacts to my unique signature combined with that of the eternity crystals,” Eclipse explained once again.

“At this point, I think the only reason he wants to hold it is because he thinks he’ll look like a Jedi if he does,” Nova commented. A good number of the students in the lab snickered at this.

“He’s just jealous that he can’t be cool!” Ms. Marvel added.

“I mean, if you want to be really jealous-” Eclipse started bragging. “-check this out!” She twisted the center of the hilt before grabbing both ends and pulling on them slightly. The mechanisms on the inside shifted and clicked softly into place, giving her a double-bladed sword.

Once the activator was thumbed, energy rushed out to form two thin blades, one on each end. Yes, they did look like a lightsaber from Star Wars, but Eclipse hadn’t yet figured out a way to have the blades flatten themselves out while in sword form.

Either way, the process of adding another outlet for the energy to emerge from had been tricky. It had taken nearly two weeks to figure out, but she was quite pleased with the results.

Seemingly, many of the others were as well, because a good number of them applauded. Iron Spider still wore his face plate, but Eclipse was willing to bet that he was scowling behind it. She shot a smug look in his direction. She was fairly certain that he scoffed.

Even after watching her work on her weapon for hours on end, he still had no clue how it worked. Not that she wanted him to watch, but she hadn’t really had a choice in the matter.

“That’s unfair!” Miles exclaimed. “Why can’t we have cool stuff like that!”

“Because you aren’t cool, Miles,” Agent Venom quickly mocked.

“If you think that you’re worthy, be my guest, but it’s not going to work,” Eclipse told him.

“You’ve already lost your dignity, you don’t need to lose anything else!” Powerman pointed out.

“My what?”

“So, clearly you’ve lost more than that,” Iron Spider accused.

“Hey!”

There was a rap on the open door frame. Eclipse froze and quickly scanned the surroundings with her powers to see if it was anyone powered. She didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary, but S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents didn’t always need weapons to take out a target.

“If you all are done showing off, I do believe that you are supposed to be working on bomb diffusions.” The voice suggested. A majority of the students groaned but nevertheless turned back to their work stations. Eclipse lazily turned on her heel to face the door. Agent Coulson stood in the doorway.

She breathed a sigh of relief. The man was still an agent, but he seemed to not be as poised toward complete control as Fury was. If Fury stood there, the chances were very high that Eclipse would’ve walked out, consequences be damned. The actions of S.H.I.E.L.D. had done nothing whatsoever to build up her trust again after they intruded on her mind. If anything, they treated her as if she couldn’t be trusted, which in turn, led her to not trust them.

“I need to speak with you, Eclipse,” Coulson said. She teleported to stand next to him as soon as he had breathed the last syllable. He flinched slightly at her sudden appearance, but nearly everyone did. It wasn’t as if people were scared of her, though that did play a part. It was that the human mind had trouble processing the disappearance and reappearance of an object that happened at the same time.

“What is it?” she asked calmly. Surprisingly, no one had found out about her excursion into the city the previous week. If they did, she surely wouldn’t be allowed to be anywhere alone; she’d gained that privilege back several days ago.

“We have an assignment for you. You’re to meet on the runway outside in twenty minutes. There’s a new specialized suit for this mission waiting for you back at the dorms. You will receive more information once you arrive,” Coulson explained.

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

“At the moment, no. This is just a training mission,” Coulson responded. “You’d best get ready, however. You have to change.”

That was a dismissal if Eclipse had ever heard one. She waved to the rest of the students in the lab before teleporting out. An authorized trip of Academy grounds would be a welcome change.

The new suit assigned to her, though, was anything but. It was one of the most uncomfortable looking pieces of clothing under the sun. She grudgingly put it on but regretted it immediately.

The longsleeve undersuit was tight material that she knew would chafe and was nearly impossible to move in in the first place. Why does S.H.I.E.L.D. always insist on using that? It simply isn’t practical for an undersuit.

The armour pieces themselves were slightly better, but not by much. There was a half-breastplate that felt almost flimsy in her hands. How was that supposed to protect her? The other main piece was an amour pleated skirt. That was almost worse than the undersuit. It didn’t allow for much movement and the metal pleats kept hitting each other.

Her belt stayed the same, but the boots were swapped out with those soft shoes that attached to a majority of people’s suits. Impractical, like the rest of the cursed outfit. On top of that, she had reinforced arm guards that went over the elbow and tabs that laid over the back of her hands. Eclipse hoped that the weight wouldn’t throw off her combat any.

As if matters could possibly get worse, the entire outfit was in black, dull greys and blues. It wasn’t really that the colors were a problem, it was just that they looked so boring. They made her eyes hurt they were so plain. Oh, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle emblem was stamped in multiple places along the armour plates, so there was no hiding who she was working for.

So far, this mission was looking to be spectacular. At least they hadn’t issued new weapons for her. But seeing how much S.H.I.E.L.D. had tampered with her traditional fighting kit as it was, she didn’t put it past them. Her annoyed expression was set off by the bright orange of her hair.

“Woah, what’s with the getup?” Nova asked as he flew in, the rest of the group trailing behind him.

“Why don’t you ask S.H.I.E.L.D.? They’re the dumbasses who gave it to me,” she retorted. Scarlet Spider scoffed in agreement.

“It is wise to respect your superiors, they are the ones who can guide you on the path of greatness,” Iron Fist added.

“I don’t think now is the best time for your cryptic messages. And while we may work for Fury, you have to admit that he doesn’t always make the best decisions when involving an unknown variable,” White Tiger pointed out.

“Thank you!” Eclipse held out her hand toward White Tiger in an agreeing manner. She waved to everyone before she teleported out.

As much as she would enjoy an argument over how S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t always make the best decisions, she simply didn’t have the time at the moment. Every moment she spent talking was one less second of freedom..

Those thoughts changed the instant she saw who accompanied the quinjet awaiting her outside the Academy. Why in the name of all the suns would she be paired with two Avengers? What kind of mission was this?

“Coulson, I have some serious questions about this and you’d better have some answers,” Eclipse demanded as she marched out. The Winter Soldier and the Black Widow turned to face her. Her mind quickly ran through some facts about each of them, including their names, Bucky and Natasha.

“Hurry up, we need to get you debriefed so you can leave,” Coulson responded. “We’re operating on a very short window here. We got word last night of weapons being illegally traded into the hands of a terrorist organization and we need to put a stop to it.”

“That sounds great and all, but you don’t need me for this. You don’t even need more than one person. Black Widow could do this all by herself without breaking a sweat. I’ve seen her record.”

“Yes, but that’s not the reason we were called in. I was asked by Fury to come and observe you in the field, as well as test your teamwork abilities with people you wouldn’t regularly work with,” Black Widow explained.

“ _Bullshit. You’re here to make sure I don’t go against the leash Fury put on me,_ ” Eclipse spit out in her own language. She did not appreciate being a pawn in the game she knew Fury was playing.  

“And this is one of the reasons you are working with other people. Communication,” Coulson jumped on the opportunity. Eclipse just glared back, the red making itself more prominent in her hair.

“Trust me, S.H.I.E.L.D. ain’t a fan of me either, but I’ll still work with them to build back up their trust. I know Fury’s agenda and I know he’d like nothing more than to have complete control, but that doesn’t mean that you have to go against everything that’s ordered,” the Soldier continued.

“I don’t need to have all of my actions spit back out at me,” she growled back.

“If you mortals are quite finished with your petty squabbling, we do actually have a job to do,” a lofty voice spoke from the entrance of the quinjet. The moment the strong magical presence of the trickster registered with Eclipse, she immediately stiffened.

“Coulson,” she tried to speak calmly but was failing. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t walk out of here right now.”

“Because this is why there are multiple people on this mission; for you to learn teamwork.” Coulson sounded far too pleased with himself at this statement. She was also quick to notice how fast he darted off of the quinjet.

“Well, S.H.I.E.L.D. certainly is trying to keep you under their thumb, but is it wise to send you out with an assassin and a weapon who can be easily mind controlled?” Loki asked the air.

“Is it wise for you to even set foot near me? I’ve got some anger to burn off and unfortunately, some of it is specifically aimed at you. I don’t take kindly to being magicked on multiple occasions.”

“Cut it out you two. This is exactly why this mission was ordered, so I’d like it if you two could get rid of whatever is going on here before we take off,” Black Widow snapped. Eclipse glared at the two before marching over to sit next to the Soldier.

The takeoff was smooth and Black Widow passed the Soldier a tablet with several displays on it. Eclipse leaned over to catch a glance at it. It would be a welcome change from having Loki stare her down. The tablet showed what their plan was for obtaining the stolen weapons.

Eclipse didn’t really understand why multiple people were being sent on this mission. She could do this herself, without being caught, in less than three minutes. That was just one of the perks of instantaneous teleportation.

“Just so you know, I don’t hold what you did at the Tower a few months ago against you,” the Soldier whispered, shaking Eclipse out of her thoughts. It’s not like she was thinking of anything productive in the first place.

“Whatever do you mean?” she asked, just as quiet.

“I know what it’s like to have commited actions that I don’t even remember doing, things that happened that weren’t really me. Crimes being blamed on me as if it was something I could stop,” he explained. She nodded slightly.

“I just wish it was that simple for me. I have a feeling that whatever was controlling you wasn’t something that you chose to have happened.”

“Should I be taking back my previous statement?”

“No, not in that case. But there are other instances where that wouldn’t be the case,” Eclipse sighed and sunk back into her seat.

“Then I won’t ask. But just know, as someone whose been through the whole mind-control thing before, I’m here if you ever want to talk to someone who understands what might’ve happened,” the Soldier offered.

“No offense, but I’ll believe that statement later. I don’t currently have the best record with trust. Is it sad that I understand you more than some of the other people at the Academy?” Eclipse joked.

“Well, they say that people tend to bond over shared experiences. Or so I’ve been told. By Shuri,” he quickly amended. Eclipse snickered. It did sound like something Shuri would say.

* * *

Eclipse hated the plan. She now knew exactly why Loki had been brought along. It was because Fury wanted someone who could control Eclipse present to do just that. Didn’t he understand that actions like these made her _even less_ trusting?

“We’ll be landing in five,” Black Widow announced. “Our drop zone is a ways off from where the deal is happening, so we will have to sneak up. Is that clear?”

Eclipse hadn’t the foggiest idea of why it seemed that Black Widow was questioning her sneaking abilities. She could turn invisible and completely silent as well as almost non-existent, so it made no sense as to why that statement was being directed at her.

“First mission like this, you nervous?” the Soldier asked Eclipse quietly. She shook her head with a smile.

“This is like child’s play. Any one of us could do this alone, and I could probably do it quicker than all of the rest of you. Not to mention that these stakes are nowhere near to what I’ve had to deal with before,” Eclipse explained with a soft laugh.

“And obeying S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t?” Black Widow interjected.

“See, I’d think about that statement, but I already know what the answer is and I know that you wouldn't like it,” Eclipse snipped back. Mint washed over her hair, which was still in a braided crown around her hair, but the ponytail was braided. She didn’t want her hair to get caught in the stupid skirt.

“And whatever is that hideous color for?” Loki insulted. Up until now, he had been mostly silent, which had been a blessing.

“I really do wonder,” Eclipse said sarcastically, raised eyebrows adding to the effect.

“Can we just begin this pointless errand? I do have important things that I would like to be doing today.”

“Loki, Eclipse, enough,” Black Widow commanded. “We’re landing now.”

“Hey, if it’s alright with you, can I work with you for the mission since we’re using partners?” Eclipse whispered to the Soldier. He was probably the only one on the mission she wouldn’t become sick of in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, Loki overheard.

“Trying to avoid my company, are we? You do realize that we would be working together no matter what?” Eclipse scoffed at this.

“Listen, I may not be as powerful as I once was, but I still know for a fact that I could defeat you easily.”

“Really, care to test that theory?” Loki questioned. He stood up and so did she. He was glaring down at her and pushing at her mental barriers with his magic. She glared back with equal intensity, mentally attempting to dismantle Loki’s spell.

“You two need to cut it out right now. We are _trying_ to be stealthy here. Let’s go; Bucky, you’re with me,” Black Widow motioned. Eclipse grit her teeth, but didn’t say anything.

“Try anything and I’ll put you in such unimaginable pain that you’ll wish you’d never been born,” Loki threatened softly. Eclipse snarled silently but followed the group out of the jet.

The plan was simple enough, the pairs would sneak in and take out all members of the arms deal. The only thing they had to watch for was the arms themselves, which were made of solid vibranium.

Eclipse eventually managed to sneak over to where Bucky and the Black Widow without Loki noticing. And by sneak, I mean teleport. Same difference. She just felt more comfortable around someone who had been through similar experiences that she had.

“You do realize that you aren’t supposed to be here, right?” Bucky asked out of the corner of his mouth. He barely glanced over in Eclipse’s direction.

“I’m not doing anything. And as far as the people below are concerned, I don’t even exist,” Eclipse stated. It was an almost completely true statement. She was using her powers to copy the signal of the scanners, making her appear non-existent.  

“Neat trick you’ve got there. Does S.H.I.E.L.D. know about it?” Bucky questioned innocently.

“Not sure. I’d rather that they didn’t. They know more than I’d like them too and I really don’t need them stalking me more,” she explained.

“Makes sense. But if that’s the case, why are you over here? I’m not what most people consider the most trustworthy.”

“You’re better than the jackass in the jacket over there.” Eclipse tilted her head in Loki’s direction. He’d yet to notice her disappearance and she planned on keeping it that way. Bucky wrinkled his nose in laughter, but he didn’t make a sound.

“Well, if you’re basing it off of charming personality, then definitely. So are you over here because of that personality, or something else?”

“I’d rather be around someone who’s had at least a similar experience to the whole mind control thing, even if mine was, wait, is, drastically different than yours. Makes someone easier to trust.”

“And this has nothing to do with the fact that Loki was the one to defeat you both times it happened?” Bucky whispered good-naturedly. Eclipse elbowed him gently in the ribs before glancing to make sure that Black Widow wasn’t listening. The next words really didn’t need to reach S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ears.

“Of course it does. I have no way of trusting him and I know the whole reason he was brought along was to control me. Honestly, the list of people I actually trust has gone down significantly in the past couple of weeks.”

“Care to share the reasons why?”

“Dreamwalking without my consent. I can count the number of people I trust at this time on my hands.” She promptly held up both hands and began numbering her fingers.

“Miles, one of the spiders, because he really can’t do anything wrong. Peter and Shuri, for the same reason. And they are both close to what my age would be if I was actually normal. And plus, most of my adaptation to this new time and place came from copying off of Peter. Scarlet Spider because he shares a very similar outlook on people that I do. Tony to some extent, but mostly because he’s had every opportunity to take advantage of my powers and he hasn’t. And hopefully you, on the shared experiences front.”

“That’s a strikingly small amount, but I take it that there are those you haven’t formed opinions on?” Eclipse nodded at this. Black Widow started to look over and Eclipse quickly turned invisible.

“It’s about time for us to move in. Get ready,” she said into the comms.

“Time to go,” Eclipse whispered and teleported back to Loki.

“Having fun jeopardizing our mission, mortal?”

“Having fun acting like you have a stick up your ass?” Eclipse retorted just as quietly as Loki had made the accusation.

“Choose your next words very carefully,” Loki warned.

“Watch your magic and keep it away from me. You _really_ don’t want to know what I can do to someone like you,” Eclipse threatened.

“Someone like me?” he exclaimed haughtily, though he did have the sense to keep his voice down as to not be discovered by the people below. “You only _wish_ you could have the strength to fight a god.”

“ _Star’s fire, you have no right to question what I can do or what I have done! The last people who threatened me like this did not meet so fortunate an end,_ ” Eclipse snarled softly in her own language. She could practically see the gears turning in Loki’s eyes as he attempted to process what she’d said. She knew he didn’t know; he didn’t speak her language.

“I do not respond to petty accusations from someone so beneath me.”

“Would you like to see what I can do?” Eclipse challenged. She slowly started rising from the ground. A feeling in her gut told her that it was going to come down to some sort of challenge, so she wanted to start to prepare herself.

She popped her fingers and readjusted the heavier gauntlets on her hands. They shouldn’t throw off her combat, especially when she had fought with heavier. The one thing she couldn’t stand was the damn metal plated skirt. In theory, she could see how it could function as part of an outfit, but it wasn’t put together correctly and she doubted that it would move in the way it needed to.

Eclipse solved the problem by igniting her sword to have a very small, but still hot, blade and cutting through the metal seams. Thank goodness the undersuit actually existed under the skirt.

“I look forward to seeing how you will fail. I doubt you can take down all of the enemy below us,” Loki bet. Eclipse looked up to see him grinning, almost madly. She responded with an equally savage smile. Her braid, which had up to this point been a neutral black, now flared a vibrant mix of red-orange and purple. Sparks even flew from its end.

Sure, she was pissed off beyond belief at Loki, but she knew she would enjoy the challenge this posed. And she had plans to one-up Loki in his proposed dare.

“Not only will I be able to take down all of the enemies, but I can also do it in under three minutes, without taking a scratch, and without damaging any of our weapons. Have we a wager?” Eclipse held out her hand. Loki seemed to consider it before grasping it and shaking it, sealing the bet.

“Now, the last question is if you would like to be able to see me or not.”

“I would prefer to be able to see you fail miserably.”

Eclipse grinned an almost-predatorial smile. It would take more power and energy, but she did want to sneak up onto her position, so she would just make herself only visible by sight to Loki, Bucky, and Black Widow. She had full intentions of removing herself from almost every other plane of existence just to prove that the could.

“You wish. Ready to start timing?” she asked rhetorically. Loki began to open his mouth to respond, but she was already gone.

* * *

Her footsteps echoed on the glassy surface she stood on in the Edge of Time. She wanted a change to mentally and physically prepare herself for the upcoming battle. It would be more difficult than she was willing to admit to anyone out loud.

At on point in time, a really long time ago, she could have used her spatial powers and crush every last one of them and not even feel the effects of such a large use of her powers.

Now, that was not the case. Eclipse could consistently lift and move around objects that were near her actual size, but the destruction of such objects was out of the question.

When she’d first arrived in this dimension, some of her old strength had somehow been retained, but she was no longer copying and stealing power from other sources. Her power levels had been greatly reduced, but there was nothing that she’d be willing to do to get them back. She wasn’t going to put more people in danger like that again.

Eclipse took a deep breath and stepped off the Edge, right into where the arms were being held.

The vibranium weapons resonated around her and her body attempted to match frequencies with them as a result of her copying powers bleeding into her body, but she didn’t allow it. She kept herself invisible, both to the eye and the technology of the scanners as well as anything else dangerous that her presence might set off.

It took the work of less than a moment to ensure that she was, in fact, visible to her team waiting above. Loki still continued to grin, but she ignored him. The words about her incompetence still rung in her ears and she felt obligated to prove him wrong.  

She snuck up to the first guard and used her sword, though in its solid form, not heat form, to cut behind the knees of the guard. She quickly suspended them with her powers so they wouldn’t fall to the ground before delivering a quick, but powerful, punch to his face to knock him out.

Next, she teleported above the next guard and drop-kicked them in the neck. She wasn’t in a killing mood at the moment, so she just delivered a few cuts with her sword that would impair them from fighting her back. She wanted to prove that she did, in fact, possess some amount of control when fighting.

The time it had taken her to disable those two guards took, in total, around ten seconds. There were perks to having her teleportation not take time. She paused ever so slightly to let her spatial powers essentially scan the rest of the area to see if there were any underlying threats. Sensing none, Eclipse teleported to the next guard and took them out as well.

That left only one guard, the one set up in a sniper position. Eclipse began to feel the effects of keeping her physical form out of so many planes of existence. Her limbs started to become heavier and she either needed to steal energy from some other source or put herself back fully into reality.

In the end, she went with the easier solution. Needless to say, the rest of the enemy was surprised to have a random person appear right in the middle of their deal. Eclipse used her powers to launch the sniper into the air and threw them at one of the groups. The effect was similar to that of bowling. Nearly all of them fell down.

Eclipse teleported over to them and began to fight those who had remained vertical with her sword. She swiftly switched it to her glaive, which threw the one she was fighting for a loop. They didn’t quite know how to fight such a weapon, so she defeated them with ease.

The next one proved to be more of a challenge. He brandished an electric baton and stood like he knew how to use it. He charged at her and nearly hit her in the head, but Eclipse sensed his swing at the last second and whipped around to parry it. He was also hit in the head by her braid flying by, which made her smirk slightly. She jabbed the butt of her glaive into his ribs, sending him sprawling to the ground. Eclipse delivered a burning, if shallow, cut across his chest. He wouldn’t be getting up any time soon.

She used her spatial powers to hold those who had been knocked over to the ground while she pulled a small shipping container over to pin them down. As soon as it was fixed in place, she stopped and nearly gasped for breath. Why was she so tired? She remembered this _never_ used to take a toll on her before. She felt the reason as to why she was so strong before prickle at the edge of her awareness, but she pushed it away. Focus was key.

As it turned out, her awareness was prickling for more that one reason. Eclipse tilted her head just enough to catch a glimpse of the other side. Her eyes widened with shock as what looked like a sound wave came hurtling toward her at breakneck speed. She quickly teleported to the right to avoid being hit, but it was a near miss. She cursed herself for her lack of attention. She swore she heard Loki’s smirk from her position.

She re-appeared and whipped in the direction of where the sound blast came from. Her braid snapped like a whip in the air, turning yellow with surprise and then red with anger. She truly did hate being openly attacked like that, and the opponent facing her looked ready for more.

He stood braced with his right arm out, but something was strange about it. It was split between the fingers in a break that ran all down the forearm. And the oddest part was that there was looked to be a cannon coming from its center.

Her suspicions of whether it was a cannon or not were confirmed when she felt the energy begin to build before another sound blast was fired. It came at her in a singular stream, but this time she managed to parry it with her sword. It was tricky, but she managed to copy the frequency of the sound and apply it to her sword, allowing her to parry the blow. It was sent flying into the air where it exploded, in a way. And that explosion was in the form of a sonic boom, and it did not feel good on any part of Eclipse, ears or otherwise.

Wave after wave came and Eclipse struggled to block them each time. She kept getting slower and slower until eventually she was forced to shrink herself so she could dodge at the last second. She had been attempting to teleport, but her grip on the Edge of Time felt loose and she couldn’t establish a better connection to it with all of her power focused on blocking the sound coming her way.

Of course, invisibility would have worked, but her being small meant that if the man in front of her aimed in the same spot, she wouldn’t be hit. Eclipse’s head was pounding from all of the vibrations around her and the sound nearly made her ears bleed. Painful bronze began to bleed into her hair and her vision started to blur.

Why was this happening? She couldn’t even remember the last time she was this weak; even when she’d first obtained the crystals, she’d never felt like this. She needed to pull strength from somewhere soon, otherwise, she would pass out and it would not be good for anyone, including her pride. She still had a bet with Loki to win and she was running out of time.

Another shot fired just next to her, startling her so bad that she lost her hold on her size and grew back to normal. The man in front of her laughed and started to walk away. Eclipse snarled and pushed herself up to her feet on shaky legs. The man turned back around.

“Oh, you ready for more? Cause I can show you more,” the man may have posed it like a question, but he grinned the entire time. His accent really got underneath Eclipse’s skin and she wished he’d never spoken at all.

“I’m just g-getting started,” Eclipse managed to choke out in a weaker voice than she’d wanted it to sound. The man laughed again but stood to face her nonetheless.

Eclipse gripped her sword in trembling hands and twisted the handle so a second blade popped out of the other end. She felt her strength draining into her weapon and she knew she was faced with a choice.

Either pour the rest of her energy into her weapon and maybe stay vertical for long enough to possibly defeat the enemy, or open her mind more to the eternity crystals and obtain more strength from somewhere else.

The flickering of her supposed-to-be-solid blade made up her mind. She took a deep breath, prayed to the stars, and let down the barriers she’d put up on the eternity crystals.

Gold and silver swamped her vision and the air around her hands and eyes began to be tinted with it. Blue-violet sparked off of her bracelets and her blade glowed a vibrant red. She felt strength from every known source pour into her body and she felt the power. Eclipse straightened and clenched her right hand, sending out a small gold shockwave that immediately retreated back into her being. And with that wave came the very force of the dimension.

She took a deep breath and sighed. It felt good to be truly back. All consequences and guilt were pushed out of her mind and replaced with the pure feeling of power. The bronze in her braid was replaced by intertwining metallic gold and silver. Her hair released sparks and silver-gold smoke seemed to pour from her nearly glassy eyes. Eyes which she leveled on the man in front of her.

Switching her double-bladed sword to her right hand, she curled her left hand into a fist. Without looking, Eclipse raised all of the vibranium weapons into the air and pointed them at the man before her. A twist of her wrist prepared all of the weapons to fire. She cocked her head and regarded the man. He wasn’t completely cowering in fear like she’d expected him to be, but he had lost much of his confidence.

“What is your name?” Her voice echoed and boomed around the area in which she stood, even though she wasn't enclosed. “It seems rude of me to kill someone without knowing who they are. It makes it so, impersonal.”

“Klaue, um, Ulysses, Klaue.” He gestured his non-cannon arm toward her. “That’s a mighty fine trick you’ve got there.”

“If you’re trying to compliment me to save yourself, it isn’t going to work. Many have tried, believe me. But that’s not all I can do. Would you like to see more?”

Eclipse grinned and her mind narrowed to a single point. Klaue. The man who had the audacity to try and save himself. She released her fist, but didn’t allow the weapons to fire. She wanted to end this man the fun way.  

She focused spatial energy into her feet and blasted into the air, flipping backward to avoid yet another soundwave. She spun into a flying kick before teleporting behind Klaue and nailing him in the back with her foot. He went down, but got back up quick enough. Eclipse blocked his short range shots with her sword until she increased the blades’ heat and cut the cannon arm clean off.

Klaue scrambled back from her, his eyes now wide with fear. It had taken him long enough. Eclipse once again reached out mentally to pull more power from the dimension, not that she needed it, it was more of an instinct when she halted. She felt a strange buzzing in her brain and she had no way to place it. She turned around to see what could be the cause, but saw nothing.

And then she felt it. The source of her extra power, not the stones, but the dimension began to waver. What looked like bright red, green, and blue bubbles began to emerge in a large ring around her. The strangest part was that the bubbles looked fake somehow, almost like they were drawn in on the ground. The buzzing increased tenfold in her brain and in an instant, she was cut off from her power source. All of the extra power exploded outward from Eclipse, dropping all of the vibranium weapons from the air and sending Klaue flying.

Eclipse crumpled to the ground and clutched her head, trying to get the incessant buzzing to stop. The bubbles in the ground started to open what looked like a hole, no, not a hole, a portal. Eclipse shrieked at the thought and mentally grabbed all of the residue energy left over and used to block whatever was trying to open. The bubbles disappeared and Eclipse collapsed on the ground again, completely out of breath and strength.

* * *

Loki stood, slack-jawed at all of the destruction before him. He then grinned at all of the chaos that had just been caused. Who knew such a weak looking human could be so destructive.

Both the Soldier and the Black Widow looked shocked at what had just occurred. Black Widow rose and walked over to where Loki stood and looked down.

“You need to get to the bottom of this, now,” she commanded. As much as Loki would like to disagree just to be stubborn, he nodded along. His curiosity in this strange mortal had once again been piqued and he wanted answers more than ever.

Instead of teleporting, he jumped down to ground level and strode over to Eclipse. She struggled to get to her feet, but she eventually did. Her braid nearly glowed a dull bronze as she swayed back and forth.

“What a fine mess you’ve created here. Might I ask why what you were doing earlier wasn’t sufficient?” Loki leaned back slightly and crossed his arms, a plan beginning to form in his mind.

“You’d, know, about that, would you?” Eclipse gasped out. She winced once again and tried to rebalance herself.

“Yes, but I must say, you’ve done quite a splendid job with it here.”

Eclipse took a deep breath before pulling out her sword and attempting to rush Loki. He used a simple flick of his wrist to push the blade away from him and approach her. She looked back in his direction and her eyes widened as she felt his magic growing. Eclipse tried to back away, but she nearly fell.

Loki grabbed her forehead and forced her head back, surging his magic into her mind. He would dig up whatever memories he needed to find out what had made her so powerful and why she was here now. He saw shimmering green overtake his vision as he stepped into her memories.

The scene that opened before him was not what he expected. Everything was in perfect detail and he could feel the breeze whispering through his hair. Loki took a step forward and the ground remained solid; another unexpected surprise. Nearly every other mind he had ever entered, save a few Asgardians, were unstructured and unstable, while this one was fully developed and secure in its existence.

So perhaps some of the stories that this lowly earthling, if he could even call her that, had told him were true. He was starting to believe the tale about her age. No creature could obtain this kind of control over their mind without centuries of practice. Loki would know from experience.

A figure appeared before him. Eclipse, the supposed mortal; he was starting to have some doubts about the last one. She turned to face Loki, looking much the same as she did on the outside. She gaped at him before spouting a small amount of nonsense and disappearing.

“Now, now, we can’t have that, now can we?” Loki tutted softly. He spread his magic out in tendrils across her mind and found her mental projection of her form. Meanwhile, a small thread of magic snaked to another area of her mind and earthed up the key to her language. It was quite a strange one, but it would be nice to know what she was saying behind others’ backs.

“ _You can’t keep me here forever!_ ” she shouted once she’d reappeared. Loki simply raised an eyebrow and acted like he didn’t understand.

“I feel that you have some explaining to do. No being is able to conjure up such power so suddenly from out of thin air.”

“ _I am under no obligation to tell you anything. You are the intruder here._ ”

“I’d like to know what happened, with or without your help.” Loki declared. Eclipse continued to glare at him. “Very well then.”

Loki sighed dramatically and stretched his magic out again. Eclipse’s memories stood out to him as clear as day and he immediately pulled them to light. Eclipse began to shift uncomfortably as she realized what he was doing. Why she didn’t try to stop him, Loki didn’t know.

The scenery around them shifted once more and they were dragged into the depths of Eclipse’s memories.

* * *

At first, there was just silence. Stillness. Yet there was awareness. The sight before Loki was a strange one. It was like he was looking through a window, but one that was tinted purple-blue, not silver-gold like the color of Eclipse’s stones. Speaking of the stones, he could feel the power pulsing around him, weaving into every aspect of the world.

The scene shifted, and suddenly they were in a dark forest. Trillions of stars shown overhead; stars that Loki wouldn’t be able to name even if he’d tried. Sounds of fighting began to reach his ears and he turned to see Eclipse locked weapons with a fighter. Several others surrounded her, but she didn’t look worried. In fact, her braid glowed bright purple, a mark, as he’d just learned, of her happiness.

She laughed as she swung her sword around in a wide arc and began to strike at her next opponent. She may have looked happy, but those around her certainly didn’t. They all showed signs of rage as they charged her. Eclipse shifted her foot back ever so slightly and tilted her head to catch them out of the corner of her eye. And then suddenly, she was behind them, attacking once more.

Yet this scene didn’t trouble Loki. Eclipse displayed none of the power that he’d witnessed on the mission or even in the memory before. Happiness was also an odd trait to be pictured in one who Loki assumed might be fighting for her life. True, he also enjoyed a good battle, but there appeared to be more to this story.

“ _You need to look farther back if you want to find the answers you’re looking for_ ,” Eclipse’s voice sullenly rang out all around. Loki glanced to his left to find the mental projection of Eclipse. Her eyes were clouded over and she seemed to be fading from sight. Her mouth didn’t move as she spoke.

“ _I’ve tried to keep you out, but I can’t anymore. I’m still too weak from earlier,_ ” her voice sounded again, quieter this time. Loki frowned but accepted this fact. He slowly pulled up older memories to light to see if he could find answers.

The scene shifted again, and they were no longer out in the starlight forest. It appeared to be some sort of meeting room, with maps and papers spread all over the tables and glowing spheres lighting the room from above. Eclipse was once again here, yet her appearance had drastically changed.

Gone was the trademark long braid and the silver-gold armour. Her hair was now up in a small bun and it appeared to be a deep shade of brown, not its usual midnight black. Her outfit spoke of importance and command, like that of an officer. The tails of the coat reached to the middle of her thighs, while the front stopped below her waist, and its deep blue shone in the strange, steady light. Only one of the buttons was actually buttoned and their silver color caught in the light. Her tan pants were tucked into black boots.

The most interesting part of the scene before Loki was that Eclipse no longer possessed her stones. That revelation both solved and created another problem. It meant that Eclipse didn’t always have the stones; she obtained them somehow, but from where?

Loki was drawn out of his thoughts by the entrance of two others, both older than Eclipse, who looked younger now. She looked up from her maps and scowled.

“ _After countless times warning you and the Empress what would befall us if immediate action was not taken, look at what has happened! Our enemies continue to advance and push against our armies and we do nothing! Sirs, let me take command of my soldiers and fight back! I have a plan drawn up and it_ will _work, I guarantee it. You know it as well as I that if we sit here and pretend that all is fine with the world that the consequences will be dire,_ ” she explained quickly in an effort to get all of her words out. The two other men glanced at each other in seemingly silent conversation.

“ _Reya Lin, Commander Reya Lin, you speak out of term. You may be the best tactician we possess at our academy and in our standing military, but you are still too young. You are too arrogant and desperate for a larger command to see the bigger picture. You have been told all of this and yet you still insist on more. You have not even received your weapon yet!_ ” the first man addressed her.

Loki raised his brows. Military? He didn’t see it in Eclipse to be involved in such a thing. But her skill in weapons must have come from somewhere, even if her battle tactics and skill at planning had yet to show themselves.

“ _And whose fault is that!_ ” she shouted back suddenly, slamming her fist on the table. One of the figurines marking the enemy fell off the table. She didn’t even notice in her anger. “ _Whose fault is it that I remain cooped up in here without a real command instead of leading from the field. If I am placed on the front lines, I will win this war before it even begins! So let me receive my weapon, and let me save us from extinction!”_

“ _No!_ ” the second man commanded. “ _You are not ready for what you speak. How could you, a child, be expected to single-handedly lead her imperial majesty’s armies?_ ”

“ _I’m seventeen,_ ” Eclipse mumbled. Though Loki couldn’t technically call her Eclipse now. That name was born much later. He supposed the right name would be Reya.

“ _Watch your tongue, Commander. The battle plan of which you speak will cause more damage than you think. You are not ready,_ ” the first man finalized. Eclipse snarled and stalked forward.

“ _I will not stand by and watch as our country burns. You have refused to listen and I will not serve under a leader who believes that they are saving our people by sentencing them to their death,_ ” Eclipse said softly.

“ _You’re leaving us?_ ” They both asked.

“ _Yes, and I’m going to fix this problem,_ ” she declared. She spun around on her boot heel and marched out of the room, and the memory faded into shadows as she did.

“I suppose you want an explanation,” Eclipse asked. Loki glanced over to her.

Eclipse once again looked as she normally did, armour and braid accounted for. Her eyes were still slightly cloudy, but her form looked more solid.

“An explanation would certainly bring the scene I just witnessed into better light.”

“I was a student in our nation’s military academy. My area of expertise was battle tactics and strategy, as you just gathered. I was the best, in all our forces, not just at our academy. I knew the bigger picture of the enemies pushing on our borders and how they would destroy us if we didn’t act. No one else did, and besides, who was going to listen to a young seventeen-year-old about something like that?” she ridiculed. Loki had half a mind to agree with her.

“Was that the context you were searching for? Because I’m assuming you have no idea what was just said and wanted to know what just happened,” Eclipse stated.

“Yes, that was it,” Loki lied. “Shall we continue then?” Eclipse frowned.

“Let me rest a moment. This is one of the first times in a long time that I’ve been witness to these memories. I’d forgotten most of them, but that tends to be the case when being out of touch with life for a time.” If Loki noticed how she had started mimicking his speech patterns slightly, he chose not to mention it. Eclipse hadn’t meant to do it, but he _was_ in her mind after all and her powers still bled all over the place.

Eclipse took a deep breath and pulled up the next event she thought would be helpful to the story. She held extreme doubts that trusting Loki was even a remotely good idea, but she was regaining her strength and she knew that very soon she would be back in control of the situation.

A cave full of sparkling crystals appeared, along with three people. One was clearly Eclipse, with her military coat accounted for and her hands still bare of the stones. One boy and one girl accompanied her, except they wore armour of shifting blue and purple. The same color of Eclipse’s eyes. Either these people were under Eclipse’s command, or they were her friends and wore the same armour.

Both of them bore some sort of familiarity to Eclipse, but she couldn’t place their faces. The Eclipse in the memory, or rather, Reya, turned to her companions.

“ _I understand if you want to leave now and save yourselves. What I’m asking you to do is essentially suicide and I don’t wish that on by bestest of friends. Are you sure you want to go through with this?_ ” she asked. She was genuinely concerned with their wellbeing.

“ _You should worry about yourself. You are the one wanting to take on the force of two of the eternity crystals. I’ve never heard of any mortal being able to survive that. How are you sure that the spatial and mimic crystals will accept you? And they have to be paired together, otherwise one goes unchecked!_ ” the boy questioned.

“ _He’s right. We are only taking on the powers of the shadow and light crystals, but we are taking them alone,_ ” the girl added. They both looked concerned while Reya did her best to look confident. Eclipse remembered how terrified she’d been that day.

_“But I need to make sure that you still want to take on something so powerful. I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this because I’m your commander,_ ” Reya checked once again. Both of them nodded.

“ _You forget that we volunteered to become part of your unit. Why else do you think we wear your insignia?_ ” the girl said wryly, but she still grinned. Eclipse’s gaze fell to her armour, the one she usually wore, not S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sorry excuse for it.

“ _Very well, shall we begin?_ ”

Reya unbuttoned her coat and let it fall to the ground, revealing Eclipse’s classic armour design, but it was in blue-violet colors instead of the silver-gold. Eclipse had nearly forgotten its original look. The other two had the same style, but theirs was shorter, coming to the bottom of their waist, and theirs was missing the v and upwards curves from the bottom of the armour.

All three of them walked forward, with Reya standing in the middle. The cave in front of them shifted into focus as if it was never really there in the first place. Eclipse noticed Loki’s frown and spoke up.

“Yes, the rest of the cave did just appear. Part of the combined powers of my crystals is shifting reality. They keep the crystals hidden except for under certain conditions. Ironically, a solar eclipse is happening in one of our two moons. While I’m fairly certain that our dimension has more eternity crystals, they would only appear in specific locations and when both moons are eclipsed. That is very rare for a reason,” Eclipse explained. Loki nodded along.

“One would want to protect such powerful items. I take it that your eternity crystals are your equivalent of our infinity stones?” Loki questioned.

“From what I’ve observed yes.” The conversation ceased as a loud crack split the air.

The three in the memory had been separated by large crevices in the ground, ones that looked like they’d just formed. The boy looked panicked, but Reya waved them on. They both nodded and walked toward the walls in front of them. Lights now sparked into existence, deep purple for the girl and pale yellow for the boy.

“Shadow and light,” Eclipse added as an aside to Loki.

Reya fixed the wall in front of her with a stern gaze. Lights slowly appeared and continued to grow brighter and brighter until they threw the room into high relief. The silver and gold intertwined and threw Reya’s armour into the same shade.

A deafening boom filled the air and the pair away from Reya began to retreat from the crystals. Reya quickly motioned for them to continue on, but even she couldn’t hide the slight fear in her eyes. Reya took a deep breath and placed her hands over the top of the crystals that lay buried in the wall and the other two followed suit.

She shrieked as a blue-violet crystal began to grow all over her body. She threw a quick glance to the side, but was unable to see her friends. The crystal completely encased Reya and Eclipse flinched as she felt the power in the room grow. The light emanating from her encasing started out as the same blue-violet, but the silver and gold overtook it quickly as the crystals began to bond with Reya.

After a few agonizing minutes, the crystal shattered and Reya fell to the ground. There were noticeable changes, for one, her hair was now considerably longer, but not as long as it was on Eclipse, and it shone with the silver-gold. Her armour had also changed to be the same color. The last and most important change was the crystals now sitting fixed in the center of each of her palms.

Reya stared at the changes and began to laugh. But it wasn’t a happy laugh, it was one filled with a little madness and fear of what had just happened. Reya’s hair slowly shifted to a deep bronze intertwined with white. Thin tears dripped down her face.

Loki finally caught sight of why there was laughter coming from Reya. He saw both of her friends, each on opposite sides of the room, trapped in a very similar crystal that Reya had been in. Except theirs were completely solid and showed no signs of the people inside. If Loki had to take a guess, he’d wager that the crystals had not accepted the other two like they had Reya. She got to her feet and slowly walked out of the cave.

As the scene shifted, Loki felt the power in the area rise. He glimpsed Reya standing in the middle of an empty field, her braid rapidly flashing black and white. Her eyes, when he could finally see them, also showed that quality. A steady heartbeat cut through the air.

“What are you doing?” Loki asked as if he was having a pleasant conversation in the market.

“Creating the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life,” Eclipse responded simply.

“Care to elaborate?”

“Enigma is designed to keep me safe in the event I become incapacitated with fear or cold. I designed her to protect me at all costs, and those costs always deal in bloodshed. Her power is directly tied to the eternity crystals, which makes her stronger because she does not feel the normal effects of such power on a physical body. She gained consciousness and began attempting to stay in control for longer and longer periods of time. However, Enigma is not the reason why a certain event, which you are about to see, transpires,” Eclipse explained bluntly. Loki once again raised his eyebrows.

White light suddenly exploded out from Reya and a burning smell filled the air. For the second time, Loki watched as white bled over Reya’s braid and as the fear flooded her eyes. The heartbeat sped up and increased to a pounding in the air. Her blue-violet irises faded to white as black seeped into the whites of her eyes. Gone for the moment was Reya; Enigma now stood in her place. Enigma cast a quick look around the burning field before retreating back and leaving Reya alone again. Well, not truly alone, as Loki can sense the darker power still lurking in the far reaches of her mind.

“You are lucky that I am not prying further into how you created such an entity. I am smart enough to know the dangers of looking deeply into a creature while that creature is present,” Loki gestured around himself, meaning the inside of Eclipse’s mind. Eclipse frowned at this, but inwardly, she was grateful. She had no idea what consequences could occur, and she didn’t want to know.

A loud splitting filled the air and storm clouds began to boil in the sky. Loki could tell that this was later in Eclipse’s memories. Be it from the presence of her weapon hanging at her side, the scratches on her armour, or the immensely stronger power radiating from her. And the more surprising fact was that this was Reya channeling all of the power, not Enigma.

Reya reached down and laid her right hand flat against the ground. Eclipse observed and wore an expression of pain, yet she looked almost giddy at the memory of all that power. The pure dimensional energy she harnessed, and in turn, stole, was more powerful by tenfold than that of the dimension she lived in now. Loki seemed to pick up on the location of all of this power, and if Eclipse didn’t know better, she would’ve sworn he looked almost scared.

Jagged cracks spread out in a spiral from where Reya knelt and extended not just farther out on the ground, but up into the air as well. Silver-gold light so bright as to be nearly blinding burned out from the depths of the cracks.

All of the soldiers that were surrounding her screamed in fear and ran. It didn’t matter, they got swallowed up by the cracks either way. Those who weren’t consumed looked almost sick at the sight of their midnight purple sky with all of its stars splitting open.

Reya took a deep breath and let it out, her silver-gold breath fogging the air. Her eyes were alight with her newfound power and if her braid wasn’t already the same color as her crystals, it would be a vibrant purple with enjoyment. There was so much raw _power_ flowing through her!

Loki knew how good it felt to have that kind of power. He actually envied Reya in this moment; what he wouldn’t give now to have access to something like that. But then he remembered that conquest for said power was what had nearly killed him on multiple occasions.

“Is there a particular reason you chose to exact vengeance on everything that ever existed to you?” Loki asked snidely, smirking as he said it. He thought it better to hide the fact that if he was faced with such a being, he would be rendered nearly helpless.

“If I call it an influence of the eternity crystals and Enigma’s protection mentality, will you accept it?” Eclipse fired back. Loki made a noise of agreement. He was actually quite proud of himself, as he’d finally discovered the source of all the power he witnessed on their mission.

“I also get the feeling that you have now learned what you needed to, but I have one more thing to show you. I hate to admit it, but you have helped bring back some of my memories that I’d intentionally buried so long ago,” Eclipse added as the scene around them changed and delved further into chaos.

Reya no longer looked pleased with her gained power; she was beginning to look terrified at its prospect. Loki could sense Enigma trying to break through, even in this memory. The strange part about it was that Reya was trying to prevent Enigma from emerging while simultaneously attempting to prevent more destruction.

Reya harnessed all of the dimensional energy flowing through her and managed to redirect it back to where it came from. Bronze that pulsed with painful frequency flooded Reya’s braid as the pain began to overtake her. She let out a silent scream and more cracks spiraled out around the cave where she now stood.

White briefly made an attempt to be the most prominent color on Reya’s braid, but it was quickly stamped out as Reya once again took ahold of all the energy she’d stolen. It wasn’t like Loki or Eclipse could see this energy, but they could both sense it. Eclipse because it was _her_ memory and power, and Loki because of his magic.

Power continued to pool in Reya until it finally burst out and spread through all the cracks, light blazing through them. However, what Loki expected to happen didn’t. The cracks began to mend themselves and the storm raging above began to quiet. Loki would have bet that the opposite would have happened with that much power, but seemingly Reya had devised a way to use that energy to heal all of the damage she’d inflicted.

As the chaos slowly dissolved, Loki peered over Eclipse. Such an event, like the near destruction of everything one had ever known, was bound to have some kind of effect. He was right. Eclipse had started to fade from sight once again and she refused to watch the scene in front of her. He also didn’t believe that she had been completely honest about the reason as to why she had attempted, and nearly succeeded with, such destruction.

A sound similar to ice breaking filled the air and a blue-violet light suddenly brightened the darkness. A large pillar of light split the cave in two with Reya being at the heart of it. Once again, the feeling of power engulfed the room as Reya poured more of her energy into keeping the entire world in one piece.

Loki could see the emotions playing across her eyes, even if her face and braid didn’t show it. There were pain and fear, but also a look of reluctance and calmness. Whatever was happening, Reya had resigned herself to her fate. And then Loki finally saw what Eclipse had known all along.

Blue-violet crystals began to grow all up Reya’s legs, firmly locking her in place. She looked completely unfazed by their arrival, meaning she must have caused their appearance. As it grew, so did the overall feeling of pure strength and power. It seeped into every aspect of that reality until everything was bathed in that same energy; the energy that nearly destroyed everything was now the energy that was going to save the life for this dimension.

Loki found it hard to describe exactly how he knew that this was what was happening, but it made sense to him. Realization struck him and he recognized what Reya was accomplishing.

By taking away all of her ties to life, Reya would be able to pour all of her willpower into keeping reality together. So _that_ was how Eclipse had managed to stay alive for as long as she did. That also explained as to why Eclipse had so much less of a memory of who she was and only had the one track mind when she’d arrived in their dimension of getting back to where she came from.

She must’ve felt responsible, though Loki couldn’t quite understand why. From the look he’d seen on her face at different times, she never looked like she’d regretted her actions. He could relate to the feeling.

The memory ended with Reya being completely sealed in crystal and the cave disappearing. Eclipse and Loki now stood on an empty, black plane with no light; however, they could still see each other clearly. Loki expected the overall feeling of power to diminish, but it didn’t. That put him on edge.

“I take it I’ve now seen the whole story?” Loki asked. His plan was to pull his magic out of Eclipse and then they would go back to the others waiting on the other side for them.

“While I didn’t want you to see it, yes, you have,” Eclipse responded. She’d become completely solid again and managed to school her face to be calm. Her braid though practically glowed red with anger, Loki knew that now. And who’s to say that it didn’t put off a small amount of light.

“I will be leaving now,” Loki declared uneasily. He started to withdraw his magic, but something stopped him. He whipped back around to face Eclipse.

She stood with her arms held out by her sides, green light gathering in her palms. For at least the third time today, realization fell over Loki. She was manipulating his _magic_!

“Oh, I didn’t mention? I intend on returning the favor. I would hate to be unwelcome, but seeing as my wants and such were already disregarded, I see no reason to ask. For. Permission!” Eclipse voice slowly rose until she shouted the last few words. They were broken up by the effort of transforming Loki’s spell into her own use.

Loki, connected as he was to Eclipse by magic, found himself being pulled toward her until they were very close ‒ face to face, actually. He was not fond at all of the most recent turn of events. There were very few beings that existed who would be able to alter such a powerful spell, but Loki suspected that Eclipse used the magical ties already present in her mind and copied them with her own powers.

Eclipse mimicked the gesture Loki had used to initiate the spell by shoving his head back with her hand and forcing the spell to reflect on its owner. She managed to briefly open her eyes in her physical body to see that barely anything had changed. A blue-violet cloud of mist was beginning to form around them, but it didn’t matter.

What _did_ matter was the fact that whatever strange buzzing and bubbling that felt eerily similar to some of the Spiders’ powers was now gone. Meaning that it hadn’t been caused by her. Furthermore, no cracks had formed in their visible reality to show that Eclipse had caused major damage to their dimension.

She had just enough time to copy the position she’d taken on Loki in her mind in real life before the spell sucked her into his memories. Loki looked too dazed to do anything but have his eyes widen in slight surprise.

* * *

The first thing Eclipse registered was the unrelenting cold. Wind howled around her and ice bit at her fingertips. She scowled at the unpleasantness as her braid turned green with it, but pressed on nevertheless.

Loki, who had now appeared beside her, looked even more distressed than he had in Eclipse’s mind. Perhaps he’d realized what Eclipse was meaning to do and had some secrets he didn’t want to be exposed to a near stranger.

In all fairness, Loki had done just that to her, so she felt justified in her actions. There was a chance that she could’ve resisted Loki’s spell due to the fact that it took place in her own mind, where she was strongest, but she was still recovering being severed from her power source so quickly. And she had been using the spell to drag up old memories that she’d buried over the centuries. Eclipse was nothing if not resourceful.

She doubted Loki noticed how she was working to mirror the spell’s effects back at him during the last memory, as it took a considerable amount of power to do so. And for her first time altering magic, she didn’t think she did half bad. That being said, Loki was no doubt furious with what she’d managed to pull off right under his nose.

“How _dare_ you mortal!” he screeched in fury. Yep, there it was. “You have no right to twist my spell in such an inferior way!”

“As I recall, you had no qualms about uprooting all of my memories, so why not return the favor?” she challenged.

“Perhaps because I prefer to keep all of my memories _private_!” he exclaimed.

“And did you take into consideration whether or not I wanted the same? Of course not! I came here to figure out exactly why you seem to be so scared of me and why I was picking up a general feeling of empathy whenever I was nearly destroying all life. Being the ‘god of chaos-” she made air quotes around that part. “-does not explain why you felt such a close relation to such destruction. So, I intend to find out why.”

Loki looked shocked at her declaration. Did he think she was stupid? She knew that they had more in common than he was letting on. Even if she still hated him after this, she might have more of a reason to hate him on some others behalf.

“Then might I recommend looking elsewhere for the answers you seek?” Loki suggested, his voice now smooth and manipulative.

“Afraid, are we? I’ve seen worse. I’ve done worse. I prefer to begin now, while I am still in control,” she declared.

“Not for long,” Loki mumbled, but Eclipse pretended not to hear. She was prepared to be ejected from Loki’s mind the second the dragged up something sensitive. She also believed she still had enough strength to hold him off until she’d learned what she needed to.

The biting cold drew her back to the younger Loki in his memories. He and an old man in orange and gold robes looked to be arguing over something in what looked to be a vault. The older Loki seemingly had enough control over the bent spell to block all sound from reaching Eclipse’s ears, but she didn’t worry. He didn’t need to know that she had picked up how to read lips.

The wind vanished once the memory started, but the cold still remained. It felt as if it was emanating from a glowing, ice blue box encased in a steel-like frame. The power of winter radiated from its aura and made Eclipse scoot away from it, even if it wasn’t actually right in front of her.

Eclipse picked up on the tone of the silent argument quite quickly. The younger Loki kept asking questions about who he was, why he was different, and most importantly, why had he been taken. The old man fell over and looked as if he passed out before any real questions could be answered.

As the location of the next memory changed, Eclipse was able to put the pieces together. Younger Loki stood on a bridge of rainbow glass, the box in his hand. Ice shot out from it and trapped a warrior in gold in its grasp. The strangest part was the fact that Loki’s skin was no longer its pale shade, but a blue covered with markings that were almost like carvings.

Eclipse recognized that look, if indirectly. She was fairly certain that Enigma had fought against this ice form of Loki at Avengers Tower. That cleared things up nicely about the animosity Loki displayed toward the older man and to his brother at times, from what Eclipse had heard. His difference in his race didn’t change much in her eyes, but she understood what it was like to be different and have to prove herself because of it. It was like that every day for her because she was one of the highest ranking females present in the military of her old life.

The blue skin of younger Loki vanished as he approached a strange device in a stranger building. Eclipse felt the spatial power coming off of it and suspected it was some sort of transportation device. She didn’t quite catch what Loki did to it, possibly because older Loki used a spell to block her view, but she did know that it started to overload the contraption.

Rainbow light fired out from the building and she felt it hit a distant planet. That impact rattled through her awareness and she understood exactly what Loki was attempting.

So Loki’s solution to dealing with things he doesn’t want to was to destroy the problem. She knew the feeling. When she looked over at older Loki, he looked ashamed at his actions. At least he regretted them; Eclipse wasn’t quite sure if she completely rejected hers yet.

The next memory was a continuation of the last one. Younger Loki fought a younger Thor on the bridge. Loki appeared to be fighting to the death, while Thor looked as if he just wanted his brother back. In the end, Thor shattered the bridge. Loki nearly fell off its edge, but his hand grabbed the end of a spear that Thor held. Eclipse couldn’t see the words spoked, but Loki then let go of it, falling into the void below.

“I never pegged you as the type of coward who would choose the easy way out,” Eclipse commented mildly. There was no real surprise in her voice, but she was intrigued by Loki’s actions.

“Mortal, you don’t know of what you speak,” Loki warned. He approached her slowly and Eclipse could feel him gathering his magic.

“You’re right, I don’t. I wonder why that is, exactly?” she asked rhetorically.

“I have no words to say to you if you think yourself above me,” Loki dismissed her offhandedly. Eclipse suspected that Loki was more rattled by his actions than Eclipse was about hers. Perhaps it was because his had occurred more recently than Eclipse’s had.

“I’m not done here, though.”

Eclipse waved her right hand as green magic began to gather around it. Loki really did hate having his own spell used against him. Especially when said spell dragged up memories for others to see, even though Loki didn’t want anyone else to know.

The aura of the next memory screamed pure evil. A weary young Loki kneeled before a throne on an island in space. When he looked up, Eclipse could see that his eyes were no longer their mischievous green, but a haunting blue. The large figure cloaked in darkness on the throne spoke, but Eclipse still couldn’t hear the words. She felt the power of this voice, however. It vibrated in her bones.

Eclipse knew the look of one who was under mind control, and Loki’s barely present expression confirmed the fact that this was what was happening. She wondered what kind of power it must’ve taken to break such a strong mind like Loki’s. She sincerely hoped that said power either no longer existed or possessed no way to reach her. Even with her well-trained mind, she doubted she would last as long as Loki must have before he was broken.

Young Loki was given a scepter with a glowing blue gem at its tip before being sent off into a portal. Eclipse recognized the feel of that stone’s power; it was one of the infinity stones, she had to remind herself that this dimension’s version of the eternity crystals were called that. More importantly, it was one that currently resided at Avengers Tower, though she couldn’t remember which one.

Eclipse witnessed Loki lead an army to Earth and nearly defeat the newly-formed Avengers before being freed from the mind control and sending the army back. More and more, Eclipse began to recognize just how _similar_ her and Loki’s stories were.

While she still wasn’t over some of the, in her view, unnecessary magicking on Loki’s part, she thought that they had more in common than she’d initially given credit for. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of that new discovery.

“Enough of this! I will not be subdued by some frail human who believes their copying tricks are greater than my sorcery!” Loki shouted when the memory finished. Eclipse watched as Loki gathered up his magic and forced her out of his mind. She let it happen only because she didn’t feel any need to learn anything else.

Eclipse slammed full force back into her own head and body, which made the world tilt sideways for a brief moment, but it passed. Loki looked less affected, but it was his spell, so it made sense. It looked as if little time had passed while they were occupied. That was a relief in and of itself. She didn’t need to come to and be surrounded, and that had happened far too many times for it to be a rare occurrence.

Loki was now seething in anger before her. Eclipse remained calm; she doubted he would try anything. He finally had a category to fit her in and she imagined that she now fit less into the ‘destroy at all costs’ box.

“You have no right to tamper with such magic!” he yelled.

“To be fair, neither did you. And I’d assume that you meant my ‘magic’ –” she made air quotes around that part. “– that I possessed before ever meeting you, not the magic I borrowed. And for the record, I’m surprised that I was even able to change the spell like I did. It hasn’t always worked with the best results in the past, and not just with yours,” Eclipse responded, her voice still even.

They’d had their fight, it was time to move beyond it. Why constantly argue and disagree with someone so similar?

“Are you telling me what you just did was largely based on chance?” Loki exclaimed. She nodded. “Well, that changes a few things, now doesn’t it.”

“If you would be so inclined to tell me how, I’d be delighted to hear from you.”

“You are a strange creature, Eclipse, though we are more alike than either of us were aware of.” Eclipse grinned for the first time ever that Loki had used her name. She would be lying if she said that she didn’t like how it sounded when he said it, even if it was only a little bit.

“Loki, I feel as if we should put this rivalry, if we should even call it that, behind us.”

“I find it hard to believe, after what I’ve just seen, that you are so quick to put something aside like this,” Loki accused.

“Are you assuming that I don’t harbor any more hate for you? What do you take me for, a child?” she retorted. “I meant that we should stop trying to one-up each other with magic and such. It’s far too tiring and getting in the way of getting work done. That being said, I do believe that I just beat the time limit set for three minutes?”

Loki had completely forgotten about the bet he’d made. Three minutes, beat all the guards, don’t destroy anything– those were the rules.

“You may have gotten the time, but have you actually taken a moment to see the damage you’ve caused?” he pointed out. Eclipse’s braid suddenly turned a bright pink. Loki assumed it represented embarrassment.

“Well, I don’t feel any damage on the dimension, so that should count, right?” she said, embarrassed.

“I’m afraid not, looks like you’ll have to do better next time. Though, do us all a favor and try not to kill us in the process.”

“I make no promises!” Eclipse grinned at Loki before teleporting over to where the Winter Soldier and Black Widow were waiting.

* * *

“So, have you found out all you need to about our suddenly more powerful friend here?” Black Widow asked.

“I can still hear you, y’know!” Eclipse called out from where she was speaking to Bucky.

“Yes, and I feel no obligation to share it at this time,” Loki responded. “And it would be wise to trust my judgment; you don’t want _her_ after you, too.”

“Oh really? Is she dangerous enough to warrant more thorough monitoring?”

“Do you feel as if I need ‘further monitoring’, as you so called it?” Loki shot back.

“I always think that, but I do agree that it’d be best to not push her too much. If she’s capable of a scene like that, I don’t want to be there when she gets even worse,” Black Widow resigned.

“While I know you don’t, trust me. Seeing what she did in her memories was more than enough for me.” Loki nodded and began to make his way back to the quinjet.

“Add another tally mark to the list of times my personal privacy has been invaded,” Eclipse complained to Bucky.

“From what I saw, and I know shit about magic, it looks like you got him back,” Bucky said.

“I did. And now I just want to go back and sleep for like three days, which never happens. You’d think someone who slept for a thousand years wouldn’t need sleep, but no such luck.”

“Are you not upset about what happened?” Bucky wondered.

“I am, but without that spell, I don’t think I’d have been able to find the rest of my memories. I’m sure you know what it’s like to have a part of you go missing. That spell helped me find a good amount of it.”

“If only it had worked that way for me,” Bucky mused quietly.

“Alright, let’s go,” Black Widow announced. Seemingly she’d finished her conversation with Loki. Bucky followed her onto the quinjet; Loki trailing behind them. Eclipse took one more look around at the damage she’d caused before teleporting onto the jet.

Something about how she acted with Bucky didn’t line up with how she’d acted down with Loki. The animosity she’d been showing towards him the entire time had vanished whenever they were alone, but then reappeared when she was with Bucky.

If her suspicions were right, and they probably were, her powers were starting to copy not just the powers of people, but part of their personalities as well. It actually made a good amount of sense when she stopped to think about it, and it explained why she typically acted like the age she was supposed to act like whenever she was around students at the Academy.

That just meant she’d have to be extra careful in the future to make sure that she didn’t start sympathizing with people she wasn’t supposed to. Well, add that to the very long list of things to watch out for. But what else was new?

* * *

“Hey, E’, I gotta ask you something!” Miles called out as soon as Eclipse walked into the dorms at the Academy. She let out a small sigh, but walked over to him nevertheless. What she _wanted_ to do was go and change out of this star’s cursed useless S.H.I.E.L.D. armour, but she liked Miles.

“Yes?”

“There was this weird blast, about an hour or so ago. Everyone who’s got an actual Spider Sense said theirs went off, as did mine. Peter called us to let us know. But I guess the really weird part was that there were these really bright and almost fake like colors that popped up all around us. Was any of that you? Cause they went away pretty fast,” Miles explained. Eclipse now wanted to slowly bang her head against the table. Why did he have to ask all of the hard questions.

“I didn’t cause it, if that’s what you’re asking,” Eclipse answered.

“Oh, okay. Just wondering. You seem like you’d know. I just hope it doesn’t come back.”

“You and me both. I don’t think it will. From what I felt, it seemed like a one-time deal. I’ll make sure to tell you if I feel anything else. But you might know before me, having an actual Spider-Sense and all!” Miles laughed at this and Eclipse went off to change out of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s stupid armour before heading off to sleep.

* * *

Across trillions of miles of space, he felt the shift in the balance in power. And not a subtle one either. Judging by what he felt, the infinity stones were active again, along with a new power. Possibly one even greater.

“So, it appears Earth once again possesses the stones. That means my plans are once again in motion. Ready the armies! We are preparing for war, and Earth just invited me to her doorstep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I once again apologize for how long this took. I kept making progress and then getting stuck for over a week because backstories make me want to rip my eyes out. You know writers block is bad when you begin to forget what you've written at the beginning of the chapter. Whoops. So, uh, hats off to a backstory that will be rarely mentioned again in the future?!
> 
> I really did shove you nearly everything at one time and I'm sorry, but it needed to happen. I have many fun facts about this chapter and its origins. The Loki spell idea was one of the original ideas that I had for this story and I think it worked as a good way to show off a backstory. Regarding Eclipse, she was originally much more powerful than I've made her in the story. Eclipse in the first chapters has much more power and is really similar to how she acts in part of this chapter with the dimensional energy. And I do explain why that is. 
> 
> A friend of mine read this and said that this chapter made her not like Black Widow. It's supposed to because this is written from Eclipse's perspective and she doesn't like S.H.I.E.L.D., and therefore Widow, who is acting directly under their authority. But Black Widow is still a great character, don't get me wrong.
> 
> More facts. I watched Into The Spiderverse twice in three days in the theater. So I did include a subtle-ish reference to it with the 'fake-like portal' and the buzzing. I also mention it at the end. 
> 
> The reason why this is coming out after the Hamilton Ski Trip AU is because that was written on pages and this is on Google Docs. Darn you lack of WiFi on car trips. And editing takes a fair amount of time because I'm making sure everything is consistent. At the rate I'm going, expect a new chapter before May. Probably earlier though because I don't really want to write another 36 page chapter. I start to forget things and that is very bad. 
> 
> All in all, fun chapter to write once I'd finally figured things out. Yes, very plot heavy, but the ideas were fun to finally fill out. Hope this was a good chapter to read! If you enjoyed it, feel free to drop a kudos or comment. Or if you have questions or any ideas for future chapters. They are always welcome. See you next time!


	10. A Little Sun Never Killed Anyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning! No life guard on duty!
> 
> *Also, happy one year to when this story was officially started! May 25th, 2018.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back! This chapter was not supposed to be this long, but I got a little carried away. The only reason this got done as soon as it did was because I wanted to get this posted on the day that this story was initially created on docs. So, one year, 234 pages, 91,897 words, and more Google Docs crashing than there are page numbers later, here we are. So, yay!
> 
> Also, here's a list of names so people don't get confused:  
> White Tiger: Ava  
> Iron Fist: Danny  
> Powerman: Luke  
> Nova: Sam  
> Ms. Marvel: Kamala  
> Scarlet Spider: Ben  
> Iron Spider: Cho  
> Agent Venom: Flash  
> Almost everyone else has been exclusively referred to by their real names, so that shouldn't be a problem.
> 
> Yes, I have seen both Captain Marvel and Endgame. I saw them both the Friday they came out. Captain Marvel is canon, cause why not it took place in the 90s, but Endgame is not for obvious reasons. That is all I have to say on the matter.

“Since when do we get a vacation?” Eclipse wondered, a bit surprised about the statement that had just come out of White Tiger’s mouth.

“Since fall break started for schools in the city and we convinced Coulson to let Web-Head come with us to the beach. Duh,” Nova answered. Eclipse stuck her tongue out at him.

“Am I to believe him?” Eclipse asked White Tiger. She jabbed her thumb in Nova’s general direction.

“Yes. And this whole thing isn’t even S.H.I.E.L.D. operated. Spider-Man somehow convinced Tony Stark to rent out a beach in South Carolina for the week, so we’ve got it to ourselves,” White Tiger explained. That Eclipse did believe. The last time she’d seen Peter, he’d mentioned seeing her over fall break.

“Who all is going?” Eclipse hopped down from her bunk and joined White Tiger at one of the tables.

“All of the students at the Academy and then the Web-Head,” Powerman replied.

“Any chance that Shuri’s coming too?”

“I doubt it, I think she’s still working in Wakanda,” Miles said from a different table. He was in the process of revamping his suit and apparently that involved lots of red spray paint. As long as it didn’t get near Eclipse’s things, she wasn’t going to complain about it.

“Wait, how did you know that?” Powerman questioned, crossing his arms in the process.

“Cause Peter told me last week,” Miles answered without looking up. Eclipse sincerely hoped he would be done painting his suit soon. The fumes were starting to spread all over the room.

“Yo, when are we leaving?” Agent Venom called out from a different table.

“Can it be soon so we can just get this over with?” Scarlet Spider complained. Eclipse snickered at this statement, purple dusting her hair.

“Do you hate all of us so much that you can’t bear to be with us?” Ms. Marvel added from yet another table. She sounded slightly hurt, which made Eclipse question as to whether or not she knew better than to take Scarlet’s insults with any heat.

“Yes,” Scarlet said frankly.

“Whelp! That answers that question!” Nova declared, clapping his hands together decisively. “We’ll just leave the grump behind and have fun for once!”

“Can we leave Cho instead of Scarlet. Cho’s more annoying,” Eclipse pointed out. This earned a large laugh from Nova.

“New rule!” Nova announced. He flew up toward the front of the room so everyone could see him.

“And the trouble begins,” Iron Fist sighed, placing his head in his hands.

“Whoever is the most annoying or has the worst outlook on this trip automatically gets buried in the sand for an hour!”

“Those were some pretty big words, are you sure you knew what they all meant?” Iron Spider insulted. Nova’s response was to fire an energy beam at him. If Eclipse could see his face, she’d be sure Iron Spider was glaring in Nova’s direction. Good, let him be pissed at someone else other than her for a moment.

Iron Spider had to quickly jump out of the way, as did Ms. Marvel and White Tiger, who happened to also be in the line of fire. Almost everyone who wasn’t in the line of fire snickered or laughed at this action. Eclipse launched a small book from across the room with her powers to hit Nova in the back of the head, which only added to the hilarity.

“Buckethead, you do realize that you might get buried in the sand, right?” White Tiger mentioned. Nova opened and closed his mouth several times before finally giving up and flying back down to the ground with a slight look of shame.

“I hate you all,” Nova grumbled under his breath.

“So let me get this straight, all of us are going to a beach that has been rented out by Tony Stark for the week so we can have a vacation and still use our powers?” Eclipse confirmed.

“That would be it,” Iron Fist said. The rest of the students had finally calmed down after Nova and Iron Spider’s outburst, so they heard the response as well.

“Fantastic, let me start packing. Also, how fast can we get a delivery here?” Eclipse directed the question back as White Tiger.

“Depends on where it’s coming from and whether or not it clears shipping.”

“Good to know. I’ll get the name of the beach from Peter then and have Shuri ship me some more clothes.” Eclipse stood up, stretched, and walked over to her closet to pull out her bag.

“Hey, do you think this place is gonna have WiFi?” Ms. Marvel called out. She stretched her arm across to her bunk to grab her laptop off of it.

“It’s being paid for by Tony Stark, what do you think?” Powerman shot back.

“Fair point, thanks! I want to finish my next fanfiction chapter,” Ms. Marvel said as she shoved her laptop in her bag.

“I will never understand you or why you are so obsessed with something so stupid,” Scarlet Spider criticized.

“You just have no taste. Besides, at least I have a hobby!”

“Hey, does anyone know when we’re leaving? Because I want to go and find some footballs,” Agent Venom asked from the doorway.

“You would. And if you actually had the brain cells to pay attention, you would’ve known that we’d be leaving tonight. And not by quinjet, which is stupid, but by private train, because Spider-Man claims he’s been up in the air too much recently,” Iron Spider scrutinized.

“Whoever said trains were bad? I take the subway all the time!” Miles defended himself, pressing his hands to his chest to add to the point.

“Trains are quite peaceful,” Iron Fist added in. Eclipse resisted the urge to facepalm at the argument. She’d never been on a train that wasn’t a subway and she had no real desire to go on another plane anytime soon. There was something about all the quinjet flights recently that put her on edge. Even after several months with all the new technology and such, it was something she hadn’t quite gotten used to.

Eclipse was fairly certain that the conversation continued after that but she tuned them out in favor of texting Shuri about their planned trip. She wouldn’t be surprised if a package was already waiting for her when she got to the beach. Peter would’ve definitely told her about their fall break plans, even if Shuri herself couldn’t come. She swore that those two were joined at the hip some days, despite the fact that they weren’t always together.

She really did hope that Shuri would send her more than just the necessary beach clothes. Her closet was extremely shameful but it was more because she had no money than the actual need of a wide variety of clothing. Some clothes just weren’t practical for fighting and it wasn’t like Eclipse did much that didn’t relate to fighting in some way. Curse S.H.I.E.L.D. and their one-track mindset.

Eclipse wasn’t expecting a response back from Shuri so fast, considering the fact that it was definitely night time over in Wakanda. She almost raised both eyebrows in surprise when she remembered that Shuri had probably been expecting the text.

 

**THE One and Only Wakandan Princess**  

_Eclipse: Hey, quick question for you._  

_Shuri: Don’t worry, I’ve got it all covered!  ; )_  

_Eclipse: How do you even know what I’m going to ask?_

_Shuri: Because Peter told me earlier in the week_  

_Eclipse: Ah_  

_Eclipse: So I need clothes and the like for a beach vacation._

_Shuri: Like I said, it’s all covered. The package is on it’s way now :D_

_Eclipse: Okay thank you!_

 

Eclipse glanced around the room after she sent the text. Most everyone seemed to have finished arguing about the finer details of train travel. At least that was one headache that had been resolved.

Really, the only thing she had to pack was a blanket for the train ride, a set of sleeping clothes, and some paints and drawing supplies MJ had acquired for her sometime after they went into the city together.

All things considered, her art skills weren’t that bad. She didn’t think she’d ever taken any sort of art classes besides those involved in drawing maps and troop movements. She’d also been careful not to take any of MJ’s art skills when they’d met, so maybe she was just a natural. It was nice to know that she had some natural talent at something.

She was fairly certain that Miles had caught her either drawing or painting once or twice and she knew it wouldn’t be long before he started giving her tips and such. So long as he didn’t start spray painting her bunk like he’d started to do with his, she’d be alright with it. He had a unique perspective.

Speaking of Miles, he was now in the process of sneaking up on Iron Spider. Eclipse saw what was in his hand and had to restrain herself from snorting with laughter. Her hair, however, did display her true emotion and turned itself a vibrant purple. Miles had a giant sticker in his hand, one that he’d clearly made himself in one of his many notebooks.

Eclipse teleported over to Powerman to nudge him in the side so he too could watch the scene unfold. He turned around just in time to watch Miles smack Cho on the back of Cho’s helmeted head with the sticker before thwipping away. Powerman bellowed with laughter and many of the others who had seen joined in. Cho shouted in frustration and flew after Miles.

And of course that was the moment that the doors to the dorm were thrown open. Everyone froze in their tracks, including Miles, who now hung upside down from a web on the ceiling. Peter Parker himself barreled into the room and landed in an unceremonious heap among all of his luggage. Iron Fist, who had just finished packing himself, raised an eyebrow in question.

“Is there a particular reason why you had to get here so fast? It does not do well to act hastily in some actions,” he commented.

“Danny, you can’t blame me for being hasty when the literal devil is chasing me!” Peter exclaimed as he dragged himself off the floor. His eyes darted around the room and landed on the open doorway where an orange tabby cat now stood.

“Um, why is there a cat in S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters? And is that even a cat, because it doesn’t really feel like it to me,” Eclipse wondered. The vibes she was getting from the ‘cat’ screamed danger.

“The cat’s Fury’s. Well, Goose doesn’t really belong to him, but no one really knows who exactly Goose belongs to,” White Tiger clarified.

“I bet it’s some badass space lady,” Agent Venom remarked as he side-stepped Goose and walked back into the room with a football.

“And how many of your nonexistent brain cells did you rub together to come up with that answer?” Iron Spider commented blisteringly. The harsh effect he was intending was completely ruined by the fact that he’d yet to remove Miles’s overly large sticker from his head.

Ms. Marvel snorted before very slowly stretching her arm across the room to high-five Miles. Miles’s eyes never left Iron Spider’s as he high-fived Ms. Marvel.

“I think I’ll just call it an alien until someone tells me otherwise. He’s cute, though,” Eclipse declared to break the staring contest occurring. Goose mewed in agreement and wandered out of the room. Iron Fist shrugged in the general direction of the door before helping Peter collect all of his bags.

“Thanks, Danny. I absolutely _cannot_ wait to just kick back and be lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking motions of the train!” Peter proclaimed with open arms as he threw the last of his bags down on a pile in the middle of a table. He let out a huge yawn as if to prove a point.

“Web-head, is there a reason that you brought, like, your _entire_ apartment with you on this trip?” Nova questioned. He nudged the bag pile with his toe.

“Is there a reason you have to question every single thing I do?” Peter shot back. “Besides, not all of it’s mine. Some of it’s board games and beach stuff. E’! The dark blue bag with the giant ribbon on it is yours. Aunt May let me borrow one of her duffels since she didn’t like the idea of me just giving you a UPS box.”

Eclipse teleported over and hoisted the bag over her shoulder. Peter blinked at her sudden appearance, but he got over it quickly. She resolved to look through it on the train. She teleported back to her bunk to set her bag down before teleporting to where Scarlet Spider was slouched over his table.

“You gonna pack?” she asked him. He pulled off his mask and stared at her. This was really the first time that she’d seen him without his mask, but she didn’t let the large scar across his face faze her.

“Don’t really have anything to pack,” he explained in a grumble. Eclipse sighed and sat down next to him.

“I know that you enjoy isolating yourself from everyone and pretend to hate everyone, but there’s nothing wrong with asking for something every once in a while,” she told him honestly. His eyes flicked back and forth between hers and her solid black hair. Perhaps he was trying to see if she was lying.

“It’s pretty ironic coming from you, ya know,” he responded.

“I know, but everyone needs to break that one track mindset every once and awhile. A break will be good for all of us.” She clapped him on the back and wandered back to Peter.

“How’ve you been holding up?” Peter asked genuinely once she made it over.

“Not too badly. I’ve had a lot to deal with, but most of it’s been personal and not the fault of anyone here,” she answered with a sigh. Peter frowned at this but made no moves to comment on it, which Eclipse was thankful for. She knew there’d be plenty of time on the train ride for such questions.

“I worry about you sometimes, well, not just you, but all of them.” Peter gestured to the full room of Academy students. Eclipse snorted and purple dusted the tip of her braid.

“Peter, you’re too young to be worrying about us! The only ones who are younger than you are Miles, Cho, and probably Kamala. Trust me, the world hasn’t fallen apart because you left. Everyone deserves to have a life outside S.H.I.E.L.D.” Eclipse reasoned.

“Look who’s talking!” he retorted with a smile. “When was the last time you focused on something that wasn’t S.H.I.E.L.D. related in some way?”

“If I’m being honest, probably the last time you came and visited. I’m still figuring out how I fit in here. I’m just glad you convinced whoever it was to let me come with you on the trip. I wasn’t sure if I’d be let off the grounds outside of a mission,” she confessed as she wrung her hands in front of her.

“Of course you would be! Do you think I’d just sit by and leave one of my friends behind? How could I be Spiderman if I did that?” Peter exclaimed with a grin. “And besides, we’ve got permission to use our powers while at the beach. I want you on my team for volleyball; we’re gonna crush them all!”

Eclipse gasped and knocked Peter’s shoulder with her own. They both started laughing when Peter tilted off balance and nearly fell on top of his bag.

“I knew it! I knew that the only reason I’m coming is because you want to exploit my powers!” she proclaimed loftily. Peter did the mature thing and responded by sticking his tongue out at her. No sooner as he’d finished this action did the screens at the tables light up. Coulson’s face appeared and everyone in the room gathered around the tables.

“Is everyone here? Good. I’ve got some instructions for you so listen up. You need to change out of your uniforms and wear whatever you plan on wearing on the train. You can bring the uniforms with you, but only for emergencies. I want you all changed and on the helipad in ten minutes. One more thing, use real names only. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t want to have to go through the hassle of cleaning up if your identities slip. Ten minutes everyone,” Coulson ordered efficiently.

The screen shut down and a flurry of motion burst out as everyone scrambled to get changed. Eclipse has a fairly easy job, seeing as she was already wearing a pair of leggings and an oversized t-shirt. She packed up her armour and boots into the bag Peter gave her before throwing on a large maroon sweatshirt. She shoved a pair of Chacos on her socked feet and hopped off her bunk.

Eclipse grabbed her bag and teleported out of the room and continued teleporting until she reached the helipad. Needless to say, she was the first one there. Several unmarked black cars sat parked at the edge of the pad, so she walked over to them.

Coulson stepped into her field of vision. She nodded at him, which he took as an invitation to walk over. It wasn’t like she was being antisocial, Eclipse just didn’t particularly want to talk to anyone at the moment. It was hard to get some peace and quiet in a building full of superpowered teenagers.

“I’m not to see you out first. Are the others coming?” he questioned amiably. She shrugged and made a ‘harumph’ noise as an answer. Coulson, understandably, raised an eyebrow at this.

“I guess so, but they sure are taking their sweet time about it,” she finally said and somehow managed to keep some of the ice out of her voice. Her hair however, chose that moment to turn a lovely shade of orange, as if her tone of voice wasn’t impatient enough. She was thankful the dark covered up most of it.

“Understood. Feel free to take your pick of the cars on the ride to the train station. I’ve got some more rules, but I’ll wait until the rest get here.” Eclipse nodded in acknowledgement once Coulson finished and busied herself in getting situated in the car farthest from the Academy.

A few minutes of blissful silence passed by before a loud crash could be heard and several attempts to stifle giggles reached Eclipse’s ears. She peeked out the window and noted the large pile of limbs with slight amusement. This was the reason she’d arrived early. It was to avoid the stampede.

Eventually, the door to the car she’d chosen and Peter and Miles clambered into the seats next to her. They seemed to pick up on the fact that she wasn’t in a conversing mood and continued to chatter on about their plans for the trip. Eclipse barely listened with one ear, but it didn’t really matter because nothing was directed at her.

A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent got in the front seat of the car and followed the others off Academy grounds. What little light they’d had from the overcast sky disappeared as they entered the tunnel to go under the river. Eclipse sighed and hoped that wherever they were going was warm.

Gods above she missed the sun. She could barely get out of the inside of the Academy, and lately, the sun rarely peeked through the cloudy sky to stream into the windows. It definitely put a damper on her mood. She’d welcome the change of scenery, no matter how much nonsense she had to put up with.

Peter eventually stopped talking and started to rifle through his bag. The sound, or rather lack thereof, caused Eclipse to crack one eyelid to stare at him. He searched through his bag with a look of pure concentration on his face and his tongue poking through his teeth.

The sight made Eclipse snort softly. Peter heard and winked at her as he continued his search. He and Miles seemed to have devised some sort of plan, because Miles had pulled out a book that he set on the small space between him and Peter. After a few more seconds, Peter triumphantly pulled out what he was looking for, a deck of cards.

“Hey E’, if you’re up for it, can we teach you a card game?” Peter asked excitedly. Both he and Miles pulled the puppy dog eyes, as if they were certain she’d refuse. Eclipse saw where they were coming from; she hadn’t exactly been verbal for any of the car ride.

“Why not. It’s not like I’m doing anything else,” she accepted. Miles grinned and moved the book to Peter’s lap so they’d have a flat surface to play on. Peter handed the deck over to Miles, who started shuffling.

“So the game is called BS, or bullshit, and it’s a lying game. The goal is to get rid of all the cards in your hand in order to win. So you start with the ace of spades. Is that right, Miles?” Peter turned over to check.

“Yeah, I’ve got it right here.” Miles held out the card to show Eclipse. She nodded in understanding.

“Okay, so that’s the only card that’s placed face up. After that, all the other cards are placed face down, and that’s where the lying comes in. If you don’t have any cards of the next value, you lie and put down up to four cards of whatever number is up. Oh! I forgot to mention that there are four suits of cards, so that’s why I said up to four.” Eclipse watched as Miles pulled out four different cards, two red and two black, to show her.

“I got that part, thanks Miles,” she smiled at him in appreciation.

“But the trick about the lying is that if someone figures out that you are, they can call bullshit on you and you have to pick up the entire stack of cards. Does that make sense?” Peter checked.

“I think so. I think I’ll be able to get it once I play a few times.”

“Just make sure you don’t show anyone your cards,” Miles added in as he began to deal out the deck. “Cause otherwise, what would be the point of lying?”

“Ha ha, very funny. I’ll try my best not to embarrass you too much,” Eclipse remarked dryly with an eyeroll. She picked up her third of the deck and began to sort them in descending order. The numerical ones made sense and she just ignored the colors, because neither boy had said anything about them being important. But the non-numbered ones stumped her. It took about a minute of her looking confused and her hair being bring yellow for someone to notice.

“A little stuck there?” Peter asked. Eclipse made a noise of agreement.

“The ones with the nobility on them, which have the least value and so forth?” she inquired. In her defense, this was her first time playing any sort of game like this, and if she’d ever done so, it was long in the past and the cards would’ve been completely different.

“So it’s jack, queen, and king. Jack comes after ten, and then after jack is queen, and then king. For our game, the aces, the ones with the A on them, come after king. Got it?” he clarified.

“Let’s get this game started!” Miles shouted, albeit softly in the confines of the car.

“Who’s got the ace of spades?” Peter checked.

“It’s already down, you dumbass!” Eclipse teased. “I thought that spider bite was supposed to fix your eyes!”

“I’ll go first, then Peter, then you, E’. Two twos.” Miles placed two cards face down on top of the ace. Eclipse looked at her cards. Only one two and she had no idea how many Peter had. No point in calling what probably wasn’t a bluff.

“One three,” Peter had to refrain from giggling as he placed down his card. Eclipse narrowed her eyes and stared at Peter, who continued to laugh. She wanted to ask Miles if he would call Peter out, but she suspected that plotting like that was against the rules. She elected to ignore it.

“One four,” she said confidently. She wasn’t lying. Yet, at least.

“Peanut butter!” Peter called out after her cards were down.

“Dang it!” Miles slapped his leg in frustration.

“What?” Eclipse asked, her hair turning back to yellow.

“When someone calls peanut butter after their turn, it means they lied on the cards they placed down. And so Peter, being the shit he is, decided to lie right off the bat,” Miles explained before sticking his tongue out at Peter.

“Such language!” Eclipse fake-gasped, placing a hand to her chest. Peter rolled his eyes as Miles placed down his cards.

They went one more time around and nobody had called BS yet. Miles had yelled out ‘peanut butter’, much to Peter’s dismay, after two eights were placed down. The pile of cards grew larger and larger in the middle. And Eclipse was up the proverbial creek. She was supposed to place down tens and she had none.

Of course she could lie, and that was the whole point of the game, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face. So she sacrificed one of her other cards and quickly placed it down as a ten, not making eye contact with either boy. Peter looked back and forth between his cards and her several times, but didn’t say anything.

“Peanut butter!” she called out joyously once Miles placed his cards down.

“Oh come on!” Miles cried out in frustration, almost throwing his cards down before he remembered the game was still in play.

“I _knew_ it, you sneaky bastard!” Peter muttered under his breath. Both Eclipse and Miles simultaneously turned to face him and raised their eyebrows. “What?” Peter responded to their unspoken question. “We’ve got an exchange student from Britain in like two of my classes. I was bound to pick up _something_.”

“Whatever, just play, Peter,” Eclipse ordered. He did so and Eclipse checked her cards. There was no way he had two queens because she had three of them. “You know what, Peter? B. S. Bull. Shit. Take that back,” Eclipse demanded with a grin.

“About time someone did it!” Miles exclaimed. He shoved the pile of cards at Peter, but the movement of the car caused some of them to fall off the book they were playing on.

“Really?” Eclipse deadpanned. She pointed at the mess of cards with her hand. “Look at the mess you just made.”

“I’ll get it,” Peter volunteered. He gathered up his cards and sighed. “And it was going so well for me, too.”

“Just stop complaining so we can get on with the game!” Miles told Peter. Peter grumbled as he reorganized his cards and the game continued.

Miles finally won the first game, with Eclipse in a close second. Peter had nearly half the deck after being called out again another two times. Miles re-shuffled and dealt out cards for another game.

* * *

Eclipse was three, maybe less, rounds away from winning when the car pulled to a stop.

“We’re here. Get your things and go wait for instructions from Agent Coulson,” the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had been their silent driver told them gruffly. Miles sighed and gathered up the cards to put back in his bag.

“And I was just about to win too,” Eclipse complained, but she nevertheless handed her cards over.

“We’ll just kidnap some others once we get on the train, it’s way more fun with more people,” Miles proposed. They all disentangled themselves from the seatbelts and from all of their bags before stepping out of the car.

“Sounds like a plan,” Eclipse agreed. “I’m down for a few more rounds. But I won’t play the entire time.” They all walked over to where Agent Coulson was standing, bags in tow.

“Listen up, I’ve got some ground rules for you that you need to absolutely follow on this trip. Number one, under no circumstances should you use each others code names. Letting those slip could mean having your identities compromised, which will prove dangerous to everyone.” He stared every one of them in the eyes for a brief second before continuing.

“Second, powers are only to be used in designated areas. Those are the private area of the beach and the grounds of the house, nowhere else. The train is also off limits, do you understand me? Finally, you need to stay within the boundaries of the house and beach area and notify me or another agent if you leave. You must always have a partner with you and some form of communication. Any questions?” Coulson rattled off. He got none, so he led the way into the train station.

Luckily, everyone had changed out of their uniforms so they didn’t look like a ragtag group of cosplayers about to get on a train to South Carolina. Eclipse hoped that they’d have the chance to go everyone’s names, for her sake at least. She’d already passed on the word to Peter to call her Elise.

They quickly made their way through security and boarded their private car of the train. They got a few strange looks in the station, but nothing completely out of the ordinary for such a large group of people. The only thing that they had to do was have their tickets checked, so clearly arrangements had been made to give them clearance to the train without having to be searched.

The interior of the private car was luxurious, but Eclipse expected nothing less if Tony Stark was paying for the entire trip. She still had no idea why he would do anything like this for kids he’d only barely met and probably only marginally tolerated, Peter aside. She’d have to ask about that later.

She tossed her bag into one of the overhead racks for the luggage and took a seat on one of the wide leather-covered creme bench seats. Some were arranged in rows, while others ran along the side of the car and had tables and chairs intermittently spaced among them. She spotted several almost completely enclosed circular booths with large round tables in the middle of them at the end of the car.

Miles and Peter immediately sprinted over to one of the corner booths and claimed it as their own. Iron Fist and Powerman, or rather, Danny and Luke, went over to join them after setting their bags down.

Eclipse rubbed at her temples with her hands and kept reminding herself not to use code names, even in her head. Perhaps saying them both for a bit of association would help. It sounded like a good idea.

Coulson and a few of the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents took some seats on the other side of the car. The rest of the group spread out and very quickly, the train car looked as if a bomb had exploded inside of it. Articles of clothing and other knick knacks were spread all over almost every available space, which was surprising, considering how much space everyone would have to themselves.

Eclipse narrowed her eyes at some of the offending mess and sent it out of what she deemed to be ‘her space’ with a flick of her hand. Since nothing sounded like it broke, she made the assumption that she hadn’t caused any damage. No one yelled at her, possibly because almost everyone was involved in a heated card game with Peter and Miles.

She walked over to discover them playing another game of BS and chuckled to herself. Those boys never could get over that game. She decided against joining them for the time being and settled herself down on one of the plush seats by a window under her bag.

The train pulled away slowly from the station and for a while, Eclipse remained content to listen to the noise it made while traveling down the tracks and watching the scenery roll by. She heard an occasional shout from the card game, but nothing too distracting.

Eventually, Eclipse got up, stretched, yawned hugely, and got her sketchbook down from her bag. She flipped to a new page and lingered on it for a moment as she decided what to draw. A certain orange tabby cat-but-not-really-a-cat popped into her head. Goose sure was cute and she couldn’t resist drawing him.

A short time later, she had a sketch of how she wanted it to look when someone plopped down next to her. She glanced up to find Ms. Marvel, wait, Kamala, that was right, Kamala, sitting beside her.

“Ooh, whatcha drawing?” she asked. She pushed her bangs out of her face and looked at the rough sketch of Goose on Eclipse’s paper.

“Goose, the cat,” Eclipse responded absentmindedly, her focus never really leaving the page. She drew carefully, otherwise the moving of the train might mess her up.

“I like the style,” Kamala complemented. “That cartoony sort of look makes him look really adorable already!”

“Thank you!” Eclipse said, touched by such praise. This was one of the first times someone had really gone out of their way to comment on her newly found art skills.

“Where’d you learn to draw like that?”

“I don’t really know, it just popped into my head one day. But this skill is completely my own, if that’s what you’re asking,” Eclipse clarified. Kamala nodded in understanding.

“I wish I could draw like that,” Kamala lamented. “It would make designing characters for my stories so much easier.” Eclipse pondered that statement for a moment before coming up with a proposal.

“We’ve got a lot of time left before get to the beach, so I could draw one of them for you if you like. It’d be easier if you could give me a written description, that way I can have something to reference, but I can go off of what you tell me,” Eclipse offered with a smile, finally looking up from her drawing.

“Really? You’d do that?” Kamala exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with joy.

“Sure, but on one condition,” Eclipse added with a smile.

“Okay, what do you need?”

“Can you see if you can find me some of that sweet popcorn? It’s the one that comes in a purple bag if they’ve got it in the dining car. If not, some cookies? I’ve been craving sweets all day,” Eclipse requested.

“I’ll go see if I can find some!” Kamala bounced off, but quickly returned with her computer. “By the way, here’s a list of some of my characters with their descriptions.” She set the computer down on a table next to Eclipse before going to find the aforementioned sweets.

* * *

Many hours and several bags of sweetened popcorn later, the train came to what Eclipse assumed was their stop. The adults got up and started to make motions like they were about to leave, so she figured she’d better do the same. She shoved her pencils and sketchbook into her bag and stripped off her maroon sweatshirt.

She snickered to herself when she saw what shirt she had on. The black outline of the New York City skyline stood out on her white shirt and the outline of Iron Man flying above it, blue repulsers adding color to the otherwise monochrome shirt, greeted her eyes. There was something about wearing the merchandise of someone she at least was acquainted with that made her laugh. She couldn’t wait to track down a Spider-Man shirt of some kind and show it to Shuri.

The flash of purple on the tip of her braid alerted her to the fact that she needed to use her powers to make her appearance normal. Out of the entire group, she was the only one who had some sort of physical, visible difference to set her apart.

Eclipse quickly turned the stones in her hands invisible and made her hair take on a normal black hue. Once she finished, she looked around to find that almost everyone was ready to go. All save Peter, who was passed out on one of the benches with a blanket draped over him. She figured she’d better wake him before someone else came up with a crueler manner to do so.

Yanking the blanket off of Peter and having it sail across the car to her served as her wake up call. Peter, clearly missing the warmth that the blanket gave him, fumbled around in his sleep to try and find it. That action, of course, led him to tumbling off the bench and promptly waking up.

“Good, you’re all awake now,” Coulson commented almost immediately after. Eclipse caught Ben, (that was Scarlet’s name, right?) rolling his eyes at the comment.

“There’s several cars waiting for us at the station that will take us to our private section of Isle of Palms. Just a reminder, the entire island isn’t ours, but we do have a private beach. It’s going to be at least half an hour to drive there,” Coulson broke down for the group. He got nods and grumbles in response, as clearly not everyone was quite awake at whatever time in the morning it was.

“Can we stop for food on the way there?” Flash raised his hand and asked.

“Do you think with anything other than your stomach?” Cho countered. Eclipse hadn’t realized how short he really was until now. Having the Iron Spider suit definitely added a good four inches to his height.

“And didn’t you, like, _just_ eat?” Sam challenged. That entire conversation was met with a slew of eyerolls and, quite frankly, was ignored by everyone else.

“Can we go now?” Ben complained. Eclipse nudged him gently in the shoulder.

“Lighten up, how often do you get to see them all make fools of themselves in a non-life threatening situation?” Eclipse pointed out, very much aware that they watched everyone make fools of themselves everyday.

“I’m so glad you asked that, Ben,” Coulson spoke up over the chatter that had broken out among the group. “We’re about to get off, so everyone grab your bags.”

There was a flurry of motion as everyone scrambled for their scattered bags. Eclipse simply teleported out of the mayhem to over where Coulson stood. He’d changed out of his agent suit to a more unsuspecting outfit that she felt gave off a ‘dad vibe’. Oh gods, being around Peter again really affected her vocabulary, didn’t it. She’d settle for blaming her powers for that one.

She assumed Coulson gave the group a once over after they’d all gathered in front of him, but it was hard to tell with his aviators down. They all followed him off the train like the good little ducklings that they were and made their way over to their designated cars.

The seating arrangements were much the same as before, except this time, Peter fell asleep on Miles during the car ride. He must’ve really been tired to sleep this much. He was probably recharging in preparation for all of the shenanigans he was about to get up to during the week.

True to his word, Coulson let the group out of the cars a half hour later. Eclipse let Miles do the honors of waking Peter up this time. Peter grumbled for a moment as he woke up before it dawned on him about where they were. His eyes practically bulged in their sockets as he darted out of the car, quivering with energy. Miles, as well as a few of the others, cackled at this.

Everyone hauled their bags into the enormous house and took some time to look around. The layout of the house meant that everyone would have to share a bedroom, but that wasn’t so bad. Everyone would at least have their own beds. Eclipse couldn’t decide what her favorite part of the house was: the open floor plan of the common/kitchen area, or the wrap around balcony and porch. Both were a win in her book.

The entire group was remarkably quick to settle in, and before long, a beach visit had been proposed. Eclipse trooped back to her room to put on a bathing suit, only to find someone else already there. Her braid turned yellow with confusion as she stared at the unknown woman who couldn’t have been older than twenty-five.

“Um, hi?” Eclipse awkwardly introduced herself and waved. The woman had to have been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for her to have clearance to the house. The better question was why she was in Eclipse’s room.

“Oh! Sorry, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Daisy, Daisy Johnson. I work on Coulson’s team of agents,” Daisy turned around and offered her name. She looked Eclipse up and down several times before nodding. Eclipse noted her casual green tank top and black shorts.

“That’s great, but why are you in my room?” Eclipse wanted to know. Being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was great and all, but that didn’t exactly explain her actions.

“Coulson said this is where I should stay while I’m here, did he not tell you?”

“No? I thought I wasn’t going to have anyone staying with me,” Eclipse stated in a slightly annoyed tone, her hair gaining a slight shade of red-orange on top of the yellow. She didn’t need to be saddled with a babysitter.

“He probably forgot,” Daisy admitted. “I’m not surprised. I personally can’t decide if I’m here as a glorified babysitter or because Coulson thinks I’m working too hard and that I need a break.”

“Huh. As long as you aren’t here to spy on me, that’s fine.” Eclipse held out her hand to shake as a peace offering. Daisy toyed with her hand for a second before reaching out to shake it. A copy of Daisy’s power flooded through Eclipse’s veins and she had to stop herself from staggering with it’s force.

“ _Talk about strength,_ ” Eclipse muttered to herself in her own language after she’d let go of Daisy’s hand. Daisy raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. She then looked away from Eclipse and scratched the back of her head.

“I, um, didn’t mean to scare you with that,” she apologized. Eclipse gave her a puzzled look.

“Do . . . you know about my powers?” Eclipse asked slowly. Daisy nodded, looking slightly guilty.

“It’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting yours. Here’s to world ending abilities?” Eclipse mock-toasted with a smile.

“To world ending abilities, then!” Daisy returned with a grin of her own. It then occurred to Eclipse that very soon, someone was going to bust into the room and wonder why she wasn’t ready to go.

“Do you, um, mind if I get changed then?” Eclipse asked after a moment of silence. Daisy looked startled at the request for a moment before laughing.

“Of course!” She stepped out of the room, giving Eclipse her privacy.

The first step was digging through her very large bag of clothes to find what she needed. She immediately regretted not going through it on the train, as she’d underestimated how much Shuri had actually sent her. Luckily for her, however, whoever had packed the bag (probably Peter’s Aunt May, from what she’d gathered earlier) had placed the bathing suit, and everything else that would be needed for the beach, right on top.

The bathing suit she pulled out was a two-piece with creme, purple, and navy floral designs on it. What was even more interesting was that the sports bra like top was reversible and was plain navy on the other side. The bottoms looked similar to running shorts, but with pockets. Eclipse praised Shuri ten times over for her choice of something that wouldn’t make her feel too uncomfortable. Even the small cutout on the front and the mostly exposed back were nothing compared to what she suspected other people had.

She quickly donned the suit before slipping her Chacos back on. She grabbed out a pair of large sunglasses, a light blue wrap, and a towel before snatching her book out of her other bag.

“You can come back in now,” Eclipse announced to Daisy, who was probably standing right outside the door.

“You ready to go?” Daisy inquired. Eclipse nodded and followed her out of the room.

“Are you joining us on the beach as well? Not that I mind or anything like that,” Eclipse trailed off, not wanting to seem rude. She was trying to make an effort to not make everyone she met hate her right away. It was working so far.

“How else am I supposed to ‘babysit’ you, as Coulson calls it, if I’m not there?” Daisy responded with a small smirk. Eclipse wondered if Daisy actually wanted to have this assignment or if she was just happy to have essentially time off.

“Fair point. Let’s go before one of the boys breaks down the door to get us to come out!” Eclipse joked and motioned for Daisy to lead first. Just because Daisy seemed nice didn’t mean that she wanted her following her around.

They’d clearly made it down just in time because Sam had begun to hit people with his towel as a prank and Ben looked about ready to murder him. And of course Sam didn’t get the message. Eclipse finally took pity on all of them and flicked her left hand to send Sam’s towel sailing over to her.

“Are we ready to go? Because I’m leaving and I can’t exactly watch you if you aren’t there,” Daisy stated. Eclipse thought she might’ve sounded slightly exasperated, but she caught the hint of a smile on Daisy’s face.

Peter, of course, was the first one to bolt out of the house. Eclipse spotted his web-shooters on his wrists and wondered how exactly they’d be useful in a completely flat area with no trees. Sam put his helmet on and flew after Peter, clearly eager to get some sun. Most of the group followed at a respectable pace and took the time to enjoy the sun and the sand on the boardwalk.

While their area of the beach wasn’t exactly walled off, it was protected by the natural curve of the island and Eclipse suspected that there were signs and the like keeping people out. Several umbrellas were set up and Eclipse stretched out on her towel under one.

Miles, Peter, and Sam raced to the water, with Sam winning only because he had his helmet on and could therefore fly. A splashing fight quickly ensued and Kamala, Danny, and Luke joined in. Ava stayed back with Eclipse to read in a beach chair, while Ben took a walk along the shore line.

Cho, it seemed, had it in his mind to construct a functioning drone out of sand alone. Honestly, for the seventh smartest person in the world, it was quite a dumb idea. Eclipse wasn’t going to destroy it yet, but if it actually started to fly, she’d have no qualms about blasting it out of the sky.

* * *

Hours past while everyone relaxed on the sand or played in the water. Daisy eventually called everyone back, saying they needed to get cleaned up in order to make their dinner reservations. Eclipse wondered if they’d had to rent out an entire restaurant.

The real shock came when Peter came back from the ocean looking completely like a lobster on his back, shoulders, and face. Sam was slightly less red, but his face sported an interesting tan line from his helmet. Cho was even more burned than Peter, if that was even possible.

Daisy sighed and regarded them like a disappointed mother. Peter seemed to already be wincing from the pain of the burns, even with his enhanced healing. He was also the only one to look sheepish about getting burned, as he probably knew better than to not put on sunscreen. Daisy looked them over for a moment longer before turning back to the rest of the group.

“Dinner’s in forty-five minutes. Clean all of the sand off you before you come in and rinse the salt water off of you before we leave, got it?” she ordered. A chorus of ‘yes ma’ams’ was her answer. Everyone trooped back to the house much slower than they’d come out, most likely because everyone was worn out from the sun.

Eclipse simply used her powers to force all of the sand off. The effect was similar to that of a dog shaking water off, only all the sand was blown off all at once, no shaking required. That finished, Eclipse headed inside to be delightfully greeted by the air conditioning.

While it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant feeling, Eclipse definitely felt warmer on the inside than she usually ever did because her powers had absorbed and mimicked the heat coming off of the sand. She wasn’t eager to find out if she could burn but she did wonder if she could control how much sun her powers mimicked and absorbed to see if she could get a nice tan. Something to try tomorrow, then.

She quickly changed clothes into a nice tank top and shorts before making her way back downstairs. Once everyone joined her, including Coulson, an agent, and two that looked like they were part of whatever team Coulson had (though they didn’t look like fighters), they walked out onto the street and to the restaurant that was a couple blocks away.

Dinner was a nice and relatively uneventful affair, probably because everyone was tired from all of the sun. The seafood Eclipse ordered was very good and it was quite possibly one of the best meals she’d ever had since arriving on this Earth.

Peter spent the entire dinner either wincing from his burns or looking like he was scheming with various people, Daisy included. Eclipse knew his burns would be almost healed by morning, so she didn’t have any real sympathy for him. She also hoped that whatever he was scheming about didn’t get them in any sort of trouble. More likely than not, he was simply planning for the next day.

They left the restaurant around nine and headed back to the house. Luke and Flash grabbed a football and went out on the street to throw it around, with strict instructions from Coulson not to use any super strength and break anyone’s window. Peter, Kamala, Miles, and Sam stayed in the living room and worked to set up a gaming console. Eclipse and Ben opted for some peace and quiet and stepped out onto the wrap around porch facing the beach.

They let the breeze rustling through the beach grass and the ocean waves be the only sound between them. Ben had finally lost some of the surley look he’d had on his face the entire day. The scar he bore diagonally across his face certainly didn’t help, but this expression was definitely an improvement over constant scowling.

Despite what others might think, she knew that Ben had a protective streak in him and that he was probably just trying to come to terms with it. It also didn’t help that he already felt alienated from the rest of the group for being not quite human, but Eclipse didn’t care. She was willing to give him the space he needed while he adjusted and the unspoken silence between them probably helped them both.

Sometime while she was wrapped up in her thoughts, Ben headed back into the house. Eclipse shivered slightly as the temperature dropped around her and she regretted not bringing her sweatshirt out. It was either go in and have to deal with people again or stay out here and enjoy the view.

The decision was made for her when the sun set completely and the stars came out. There were millions of them, more than she’d ever seen in the city. She felt vaguely robbed of the sight and resolved that she would spend as much time as she could on the trip looking at them.

They were so different than the ones she remembered, but she knew it was bound to happen. Between her near lack of a memory in that department (sure, Loki’s spell had helped drag some of that up, but nowhere near enough) and the fact that she wasn’t entirely sure that her home planet had been her dimension’s version of Earth, the chances of the stars above being the same were less than none.

Any normal person would’ve headed towards hours ago, but Eclipse was no normal person and old habits die very hard. It turned out that being hunted and chased for about a year cemented the ‘less food and even less sleep’ survival instinct. She was trying better on both of those fronts, but she was lucky to sleep three nights out of seven. And so she found herself a seat on one of the hammocks facing the beach and slowly watched the sun rise over the water.

As the sun finally cleared the horizon and illuminated the blue water of the ocean, Eclipse deemed it time to go in. There was coffee to be had and possibly pancakes if someone got their rears in gear enough to make breakfast. She’d never say no to pancakes, not anymore. Coffee was also a gift from the gods and never failed to warm her up after a nightly stint outside.

Luck was on her side, as she walked in to see a large pot of coffee already made and to Danny at the stove. The relationship between her and Danny had gotten better, she’d begrudgingly admit, but she probably trusted less than she should at this point. The fact that she’d never been approached about what Danny had seen in her mind had gone far to mend those bridges.

Eclipse grabbed a plain white mug from the cupboard after Danny pointed it out with his spatula. She nodded in thanks and added a large amount of sweetened creamer to her steaming beverage. She took a nice, long sip. Confirmed, coffee was definitely the best warm-up after a cold night outside.

She migrated over to one of the large sofas to press her back up against the armrest and stretch herself out over much of its length. Sam came down next, which was surprising, and promptly sat on her legs when she made no motion of moving them. She lifted both of them after he’d sat down and effectively threw him off the sofa. Danny snickered at this; Sam shot him a glare before going over to steal a pancake. That earned him a smack on the head with the spatula.

A woebegone Sam retreated from the kitchen area back to the open living room, this time to occupy a spot not on Eclipse’s legs, for which she was grateful. He flicked on the TV and pulled out a game controller. Eclipse wasn’t exactly sure what game he was playing on the PS4 (was that it?), but involved lots of shooting at what looked like aliens.

The sound of video games clearly drew most of the group down, because fairly soon, Sam had gained another teammate as well as a cheering squad. The rest of those in the living room took seats in the armchairs or at the bar. Eclipse decided to be nice and removed her legs from the sofa so more people could sit there.

Daisy was the last person to come down, and as soon as she spotted Eclipse, she went over to drag her into a quieter corner. Eclipse knew she was about to be chewed out in the very least from Daisy’s expression.

“Before you say anything, I was on the porch all last night watching the stars. That’s all. I do it all the time at the Academy. I wasn’t causing any mischief, I was just enjoying the night air,” Eclipse defended herself. Daisy paused at this.

“Well, just make sure that you check in before you do that again. I was assigned to look after you on this trip and I can’t have one of my charges wander off in the middle of the night,” Daisy reprimanded like a stern parent. Eclipse sighed and nodded in agreement. So long as Daisy didn’t make her stay inside every night, she’d be fine.

Danny called out, finally, that breakfast was ready. The many large plates of pancakes were quickly demolished in minutes by starving superteens, many of which had increased metabolism. Eclipse was lucky to snag one for herself.

The lively conversations from last night continued to flow over breakfast as the activities for the day were planned out. Eclipse heard something about volleyball with powers and was interested to see what would become of it. Hopefully no explosions, but one never knew. Neither Daisy nor Coulson, who’d finally come down for food, seemed to reject the idea, which was good.

Once she’d eaten, Eclipse went up to put on the same suit she’d worn yesterday. She grabbed her towel and sunglasses before rejoining the throng of people downstairs. Peter now bore a large box that contained a volleyball net, Kamala had the volleyball itself, and Coulson had what looked to be a lifeguard tube and a whistle.

The trip to the beach was much the same as yesterday and Eclipse was glad that the umbrellas hadn’t blown away. What followed next was a large argument over the best way to put up the oversized net. Eclipse deemed it enough after a few minutes.

“Why don’t you just read the damn instructions?” she suggested loudly over all the talking. Almost everyone shut up and blinked at her for a moment.

“Because these instructions are more confusing than the directions of IKEA furniture. And not in English, I don’t think,” Luke explained. Eclipse sighed and held out her hands for the instructions. They were reluctantly handed over. She gave up on reading the words and looked at the pictures. Ah, that made much more sense.

“Just look at the pictures,” she told them. Kamala face palmed at this. Everyone else (minus Cho and Ben) looked as if light bulbs had gone off over their heads. After that, assembly of the volleyball net took almost no time.

“Hey, everyone, look!” Peter exclaimed as he held up the poles for the net. “The stakes are high!” He was met with dead silence for a moment before nearly everyone was reduced to fits of laughter on the sand. Peter received many threats to be demolished during the game for such a pun.

Ava was kind enough to explain the rules of volleyball to Eclipse while the net was being set up. It seemed simple enough, just don’t let the ball touch the ground or fall out of bounds. Speaking of boundaries, the net came lines that looked like they were made of tarp that could be laid out to make the oversized court.

“Now the fun begins!” Kamala announced. She stood in front of the group and was quickly joined by Peter and Miles. “We’re going to split you in half and everyone will play at once.”

“Now for powers, anything goes, just no explosions. Or destruction of property,” Miles added in.

“I better not see any explosions over there!” Coulson yelled out from under his umbrella. The oddest part about that was that he had a large, white blob of sunscreen on his nose. Way to look completely ridiculous, Coulson.

“Just don’t overuse them, or it won’t be fun for anyone,” Peter said. Eclipse felt many sets of eyes on her. She held up her hands in surrender at this. She had intentions to actually play the game, not just teleport and manipulate the ball’s course so that it never hit their side of the court.

“So, teams. I’m going to count you off as 1 and 2. 2’s go over there,” Kamala pointed to the other side of the court. In the end, the 1’s consisted of Eclipse, Danny, Ben, Peter, Luke, and Ava. The 2’s had Miles, Kamala, Flash, Sam, and Cho. There were many complaints that the 2’s were at a disadvantage from the 2’s.

“Suck it up! Deal with it like superheroes, not babies!” Luke insulated from their side of the court. That statement promptly sparked a bit of competitiveness in team 2, who vowed to completely crush team 1.

“Hey, keep in mind that those in second are just the first losers!” Peter called out jokingly. Kamala looked like she was resisting the urge to stretch her hand over and smack Peter upside the head for that comment. Miles just stuck out his tongue.

All in all, there was absolutely no strategy for how either team played. Eclipse opted to sit out the first game so she could watch how it was played and what form was acceptable. It was truly an amazing sight to watch, what with all of the spiders slinging the ball around with their webs, Sam flying around, and and everyone doing all that they could to obliterate the other team. It was quite entertaining to watch.

She was also fairly certain that the ball had to be reinforced with something, otherwise it would’ve been crushed the moment almost any of them served it. It was a miracle it hadn’t ended up in the ocean yet and that the net hadn’t fallen down. She credited the second one to the fact that no one had actually landed on the net as of yet. Eclipse had a feeling that would change before the day ended.

“Yo E’, you want in this game?” Luke called out. Eclipse found it funny that he never lost the sunglasses, even though they were part of his uniform and he technically shouldn’t be wearing them.

“Why not, just don’t make me serve first,” she answered and ran onto the sand court. She was glad she’d kept her Chacos on, as the sand was scorching.

“Fair enough, you know what to do?” Luke checked. Eclipse nodded and took a spot in the middle of the court. He motioned for Flash to serve the ball, and soon enough it was flying over the net at breakneck speeds. Eclipse was all set up to bump the ball normally over the net when a web came careening in front of her face to yank the ball off its trajectory and back over the net.

Eclipse looked around and spotted Ben with an angry expression on his face. Well, angrier than normal. She cocked her eyebrows at him in question.

“He shouldn’t have been aiming for you right away,” was the gruff, mumbled answer.

“Aww, you do care!”

“No, I don’t. I just didn’t think that was fair.” And then Ben proceeded to ignore her. Eclipse rolled her eyes good-naturedly at his antics before returning her focus to the game.

At least some of the both teams was attempting to play normally, especially Cho. But Eclipse reasoned it was because he didn’t have his suit and seemingly the Iron Spider didn’t have detachable web-shooters. Kamala occasionally stretched her arms to keep the ball from hitting the ground and Sam would also fly up and spike the ball right as it crossed the net, but nothing earth-shattering.

And Miles used his webs to swing the ball high over the net. Eclipse looked at it and saw that it was falling too fast and that no one else was really in a position to save it. So she crouched, gathered her powers, and used them to boost her jump up to the height of the ball. She built up more power behind her left palm, aimed, and slammed it down, sending the ball hurtling to the sand. So what if she used her powers to change the ball’s path so that it couldn’t be saved.

Her team cheered at her move, while the other team, specifically Cho, complained about the teams being unfair. Eclipse did the sportsmanlike thing and stuck her tongue out at him.

Her move opened the floodgates to everyone else using their powers. Luke would spike the ball with such force that it would make craters every time it landed in the sand. And it always did, because no one felt like breaking an arm by trying to save it. Ava flipped all over the court and became very good at tipping the ball over the net so that it barely landed on the other side. This proved to be slightly less effective than Luke’s power spike, mostly because if Kamala or Flash were in the front, they could stretch and use the Venom symbiote respectively to save the ball if they were fast enough.

Ava wasn’t the only one doing flips. All of the spiders, save Cho, used all of their spider agility, including occasionally jumping onto and off of other people. This got even more interesting when Danny started forming a platform with his hands and boosting Peter for his jumps. Luke, and then Sam and Flash, caught wind of this plan, but Luke and Sam were the most effective because Luke had super strength and Sam could fly.

It was a miracle that the ball didn’t become all sticky with the amount of webbing used on it. Eclipse figured that most of it got burned off whenever Sam would use his energy blasts on the ball or when Danny would use his Iron Fist to either serve or spike it. Eclipse also bet that it was designed by Shuri, so of course things like that wouldn’t be a problem.

Eclipse’s team won the game once the points reached fifteen. There was a small amount of celebrating and showboating before Eclipse grabbed the ball and teleported to the end of the court to serve. She didn’t get a chance the last game and planned on starting the game off with a bang.

Both teams saw her plan and got back into some sort of playing order. Danny motioned for her to serve, so she did. Except she build up the largest amount of power behind her fist that she could before tossing the ball into the air and all but punching it over the net.

It got over all right. It also went completely over the heads of every member of the other team. Sam had to do a quick aerial roll to get out of the way of the all but flaming ball as it screamed past. Naturally, the ball went out of bounds by a long shot and went right into the ocean.

Nearly everyone but both teams looked at Eclipse with either a look of awe, annoyance, or both.

“Okay, so I think all of my chest hair just got burned off with that,” Sam commented once he’d landed. Ava visibly cringed.

“First of all, that’s disgusting; second of all, it wasn’t actually on fire; and third, you don’t have any in the first place,” Ava said, clearly speaking for everyone, as a sea of nods from both teams accompanied this statement. Peter mimed a gag and got the laughs he was intending.

“I’ll get it,” Eclipse volunteered. She teleported over to where the ball had rolled into the ocean and picked it up. The water was chilly, which was probably what kept her from noticing what she stood on until the sand under her right foot moved suddenly. Eclipse wasn’t going to lie, she definitely shrieked as the slimy thing moved underfoot. She jumped about a foot in the air and teleported back to the group, shaking.

“You good there?” Miles checked when she still clutched the ball with shaking fingers.

“What in the name of all the gods was that?” she demanded to know.

“Um, probably a fish,” Kamala guessed. Several of the others nodded at this.

“And what kind of fish likes to be stepped on?”

“That’s a flounder. They’re flat and hide in the sand. They also taste good,” Luke explained. “Can we get back to playing now that you’ve had a run-in with nature?” Eclipse tossed the ball over to him in response to that.

“I’m going to eat one in revenge tonight for dinner,” she muttered as she moped over to her spot.

The new game started, this time without any mishaps. Peter was unfortunate enough to have the ball spiked on his bare-sunburned back by the purposefully aimed hit of Sam. Peter winced in pain, while Sam cackled.

“C’mon Web-Head, your nerd-sense not work on sports?” Sam jabbed from the air. That, for some reason, gave Eclipse an idea. She teleported to Luke and elbowed him to get his attention.

“Next time the ball comes over, can you launch me like you’ve been doing with the others? I’ll let you know when,” she whispered as to not let the other team know of her plan. He agreed.

Her opportunity came when Flash hit the ball underhandedly and sent it flying over the net and way over Sam’s head.

“Luke, now!” she shouted as she sprinted over to the platform he’d made with his hands. Once she had her foot placed, he pushed up with all of his might, sending her soaring into the air above the ball. Eclipse used her powers to give her a boost for even more height.

By now, she was tens of feet over the ball. She changed her course in a split second and tucked herself into a forward roll toward the ball. Her braid whipped the air around her as she sped toward the ground. At the last second, she unfurled to give the ball a hearty smack towards Sam’s face.

Eclipse put a little of her power behind it to give the ball some more oomph and to guide its course to Sam’s face. Once the target hit home, she made the ball bounce off Sam’s face and hit Cho in the head and knock his stupid sunglasses off.

The blow send Sam reeling and made him lose his center of balance so he fell and hit the sand with a resounding ‘thunk’. Eclipse didn’t think it was possible for that to happen, but she supposed that if his helmet was knocked askew, which it was, he could fall out of the sky.

But that wasn’t even the best part. The most glorifying part of the whole stunt was that when the ball hit Cho’s sunglasses, they actually broke. He spent the better part of a minute staring at them and looking like he was going to cry.

‘They’re just sunglasses, Cho. Get over it and stop acting like a toddler, OH WAIT!’ Eclipse thought to herself on the way down. Her feet touched the sand gracefully and performed a backbend kick over. She bowed to the watching group and looked out at the destruction she’d caused. And no, she didn’t feel bad about Cho. He most definitely deserved it.

Sam was lying face-down in the sand, refusing to get up, while Cho was frantically searching for the pieces of his sunglasses. No one took pity on either of them. Eclipse would’ve continued gloating about her success when Coulson caught her eye.

He shook his head slightly, which she took as a cue to dial back some on the powers. She did, however, laugh at the picture Coulson made. It was really hard to take him seriously with a bit of sunscreen on his nose, oversized sunglasses and giant floppy hat, and a lifeguard rescue tube. Nevertheless, she obeyed his order and didn’t bash anyone else’s face in. Shame, would’ve been fun, but oh well.

They finished out the game, at which point Cho attempted to run off to get his suit, but was stopped by Daisy, who informed him that he couldn’t leave without a chaperone. And if that didn’t hit the nail in the head about Cho being the youngest, his pouting walk all the way back to the court certainly did.

After that, Flash proposed that they play a game of Eclipse versus everyone else. Eclipse accepted the challenge and the rule that she wasn’t allowed to change the course of the ball, but could use all of her other powers.

All the teleporting and use of her powers to help her gain altitude with her jumps and giving the ball some extra oomph really wore her out. To be fair, this was one of the more recent times that she’d had to use her powers so much in a short period of time. So it was definitely some good training for her.

The other team did manage to score some points, but that was mainly when they tag-teamed and managed to spike the ball as Eclipse was still getting recoiling from a hit. Such hits turned her hands bright red from use and she eventually bowed out of the game.

Eclipse and some of the others rested in the shade for awhile before joining everyone else in the ocean. This time, Eclipse didn’t step on a fish and she quite enjoyed splashing around in the waves.

As the sun began to dip lower and lower in the sky, Daisy called everyone back to go get ready for dinner. They went to a different restaurant this time, and Eclipse did indeed get flounder. She thought it was okay, but it needed more spices for sure.

By the time they called it quits for the night, Eclipse was more than ready to drop. She couldn’t really remember the last time she’d been this tired. She was sound asleep before Daisy entered the room, which was probably a good thing.

* * *

The next day brought a new activity. Well, two new activities. And one involved a bit more social interaction than Eclipse was ready for at 8:30 in the morning. She had discovered over time that whenever she actually slept, it took her a full hour to completely wake up, and she did not like to be bothered in her half-asleep state.

So imagine her surprise when she came down stairs to discover two new people arguing over the best way to make an omelet. They definitely weren’t S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, despite them being adults. Or if they were, they weren’t field agents.

They argued over the merits of putting spinach versus mushrooms in said omelet in distinctly non-American accents. They sounded like they were from Great Britain, but seeing as Eclipse hadn’t met many British people, she couldn’t be sure.

Eclipse stared at them blearily for a minute, and when they failed to notice her, she teleported over to grab a bowl and cereal. They still didn’t notice her, and if she was more awake, Eclipse would be tempted to throw things at them to catch their attention, but it was far too early to be making such a racket.

She ate in silence and was moments away from falling asleep in her cereal (seriously, she needed to work on her stamina with her powers) when she heard footsteps behind her. She felt the familiar amount of strength the person was giving off and recognized them as Daisy.

Daisy crossed her arms over her black t-shirt and stared at the pair disapprovingly. Eclipse propped her chin on the countertop to watch what was sure to be an interesting interaction.

“Fitz, Simmons, what did we say about having scientific arguments in front of others before ten?” she asked in an extremely patient tone, one not so different as one might address a small child.

“That we shouldn’t do it before everyone’s had their coffee,” the male, Fitz clearly, responded sullenly.

“And it wasn’t even a scientific argument. Fitz here thinks that the only proper way to make an omelet is to add mushrooms to it, which is absolutely horrendous, considering the fact that spinach obviously adds more nutritional value,” Simmons argued. Daisy rolled her eyes at this, while Eclipse smirked.

“Except, mushrooms are also healthy, plus they taste a lot better,” Fitz turned and added to Simmons. He clearly wasn’t going to let this go.

“Oh my god, will you two not do this before breakfast? Also, aren’t you only here for water samples, not child protection duty?” Daisy complained.

“I am not a child,” Eclipse muttered. Well, it was supposed to be a mutter, but everyone heard her. Fitz and Simmons turned to stare at her.

“When did she get here?” Simmons questioned Daisy. Now it was Eclipse’s turn to roll her eyes.

“ ‘She’ has a name, and it’s Elise. And I’ve been here for the past five minutes. Also, your omelet is burning,” Eclipse mentioned grouchely, her hair gaining an impatient orange hue. Needless to say, that set them into action. Fitz scrambled for the tongs while Simmons hopped out of the way in favor of examining Eclipse’s braid.

“Fascinating! Have you changed the molecular structure of the hairs themselves, or is it just an illusion? Would I be able to obtain a sample to study it and it’s powers?” Simmons bombarded with questions. Daisy clearly drew the line at this.

“Simmons, why don’t you help make breakfast with Fitz. I’m sure Elise would be up to answering questions later,” Daisy shooed Simmons away from Eclipse and then took a seat next to her on the bar.

They watched the unorganized chaos of omelet making, this time without arguments, as the parties involved realized they could put whatever ingredients they wanted in their own omelets.

“Their supposed to be scientists, but I swear those two can be so oblivious sometimes,” Daisy commented off-handedly. Eclipse raised an eyebrow in question, but didn’t abandon her food.

“They’ve been making heart eyes at each other for as long as I can remember, but neither of them seem to notice the others.”

Eclipse huffed as an answer and before long, there were several plates of food and a large amount of incoming teenagers. Peter was the last one down and made the most dramatic entrance of them all. He slid across the floor in his socks before collapsing onto the sofa.

He didn’t stay down for long, as he bounced back up and draped himself over the bar.

“Guess what today is!!” he announced. He didn’t get an answer, but then again he didn’t wait for on. “WATER SKIING!!” he exclaimed in a sing-songy voice. Now _that_ caught Eclipses attention and held it. How exactly were they going to manage such a thing?

That was the path of her thoughts as the group went back out to the beach with Fitz and Simmons in tow. True to Daisy’s word, they left shortly after for the water and began to gather samples. Coulson arrived last with a hoverbike. Was this what pulled a person on said water skiing?

“Here’s the rules. No crashing, no flips, and you have to stay just above the water’s surface. No disturbing the dolphins if you see any, that was the deal made with authorities. The only ones allowed to drive are Ava, Luke, Danny, and Daisy. You can have one person on the back as a spotter and one person being pulled. Am I clear?” Coulson rattled off. He got lots of nods and ‘yes’s. And complaining about not being able to drive from Peter.

“No, you are not allowed to drive anything. The last time you drove a car you managed to hit every single mailbox in Queens. No way are you repeating that with the hoverbike,” Ava reprimanded. Peter looked dejected, but he didn’t argue.

Coulson brought out the water skis and attached them and a long rope to the back of the bike which was hovering over the waves. Luke hopped on to drive and Danny tagged on to spot on the back. Miles strapped himself into the skis and gave a thumbs up to start.

Luke took that as an invitation to gun it, and Miles, who was holding onto the rope on the back of the bike, was yanked forward and earned a face full of water for his trouble. Peter cackled and Eclipse noticed his spider drone following Miles, catching it in all its glory on video.

“Warn me next time!” Miles yelled once he’d spit out all of the water in his mouth.

“Well, you gave me a thumbs up so I thought you were ready,” Luke yelled back. Danny chuckled quietly and tried to look innocent, but it wasn’t really working.

“Besides, shouldn’t your spider sense have warned you?” Danny pointed out. Miles turned red and grumbled something under his breath. This time, he got his feet placed correctly and when Luke started again, Miles was able to gain his balance and actually stand up.

“I GOT IT!!” Miles shouted triumphantly before promptly losing the balance he had and falling face first again in the waves. They tried this a few more times, with much of the same result.

“Okay, time’s up,” Danny declared. “Who’s next?” Miles sulked all the way to the beach, but cheered up a little when Peter showed him some of the footage.

“I’ll go!” Eclipse volunteered. She waded into the waves and grabbed the rope, completely foregoing the pesky skis.

“Um, E’? Aren’t you missing somethin’ there?” Luke asked.

“Nope! Who says I need skis?” she responded with a grin. “Peter! Film this! It’s gonna be great!” she called out. She got a thumbs up in response and there looked to be some betting going on about whether or not she could pull off this stunt.

Luke took off like a rocket, which Eclipse was not expecting, but she quickly recovered. She called on her powers to make her slide along the surface of the water, and soon a silver glow appeared beneath her feet.

She whooped with joy as her braid started sparking a bright purple. Eclipse all but flew along the surface of the water as Luke did everything possible to try and make her lose her balance. All the tight turns only gave her more momentum, which she used to start doing tricks.

They started off simple, just some sliding footwork that she’d typically use in swordplay, but it quickly progressed into more advanced flips and jumps. The best was when she’d do a huge flip and slam her feet into the water when she landed. Those created very large waves and sometimes she’d let her feet be dragged along underwater before hopping back up on its surface.

After about fifteen minutes of such action, Luke slowed and pulled back to shore. They were met with the sound of applause and a few whistles, most of them from Miles. The guy even had good spider instincts and he couldn’t keep his balance at something easy like water skiing.

“Sweet Christmas, what was that?” Luke wondered, completely floored by her performance.

“And why didn’t we know about it before now?” Cho asked incredulously.

“Don’t be jealous, Cho. Besides, green isn’t a good color on you!” she insulted cheerfully, still coming down from her adrenaline high. Cho spluttered for a moment before giving up on speech and resorting to a glare.

“But really, what was that?” Sam wanted to know. Eclipse didn’t want all of the constant bugging to destroy her good mood, so she broke down and told them.

“I use my powers to manipulate my body so I stand on top of the water’s surface instead of sinking down into it. And it hasn’t come up before now because it’s not like we’ve exactly been in a situation where I can put it to use,” Eclipse explained with a shrug.

“So cool,” Kamala practically worshiped. Everyone could see the almost literal hearts in her eyes.

“Why thank you!” Eclipse flipped her braid at the compliment.

“Alright, who’s next?” Danny finally asked. “I’ll drive.”

“I’ll spot,” Eclipse offered. Like hell was she going to give up her chance to ride the hoverbike again.

“Hey, we should make a competition out of it!” Peter suddenly exclaimed, his face lighting up. Everyone seemed to like the idea, including Ben and Cho, which was surprising. The former because Eclipse hadn’t expected him to be fond of something like this, and the latter because he seemed to be pointedly opposed to any of Peter’s ideas. But Eclipse suspected Cho was playing along because he was looking for an opportunity to show her up.

“Me first!” Flash insisted. Eclipse rubbed her hands together in excitement. This was going to be fun.

And thus the Great Water Ski-Off was born. It ended up being spread over their last days at the beach, but no one seemed to mind. Peter had his drone follow and record everyone so they could decide who was the best at the end.

While this was going on, more volleyball was played, sandcastles or fortresses or whatever were built, and lots of tanning took place. All in all, it was fun and relaxing.

Eclipse was sad to leave at the end of the week, but the break from all of the training and such had been a necessary one. This was the first time she’d really seen any of the group act their age and she actually enjoyed it. It reminded her of how young she was in reality and she relished in the chance to bring out that side of herself. Having such responsibility on one’s shoulders really made you grow up fast.

On the train ride back, everyone crowded on the benches next to each other so they could watch the footage captured. They even consulted Shuri to have a second opinion on the competition. A wise decision was made of not showing Eclipse’s until last, mostly because she had an unfair advantage.

Shuri agreed that the best ones were either Ava’s or Ben’s. Ava’s reflexes made for a truly interesting spectacle to watch and she included as many jumps and flips as she could, but even she was subjected to the hassle of the skis at times. And there was just something about the way Ben was able to so much extra height without actually flying that was amazing.

And then, of course, Eclipse’s was shown. Shuri was blown out of the water (yes, pun intended) by what Eclipse could to. She made her promise that her moves be demonstrated again next time they saw each other. Eclipse laughed at this and agreed.

They arrived back at the Academy all too soon and it was back to the formal and rigorous everyday life of a superhero. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Eclipse would miss being able to interact with the group like this, but she was glad that at least most of the bridges between them were fixed. Turns out everyone needed a little beach therapy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I say I got carried away, I meant it. I originally meant for this chapter to be 20ish pages, but it's more like 36. Originally, the whole BS part didn't exist, which would cut it down to about thirty, but I have no regrets. Both Eclipse's power move during volleyball and the whole water skiing without skis were some the original ideas I had for Eclipse before an actual story line got created. It was really me just putting her in situations and imagining what would happen, and those happened to be one of them. 
> 
> To those who might've stuck around with me for a whole year, let me know in the comments! I love hearing from people and I promise I will answer questions. Also, any ideas are always welcome. Thanks to everyone who's read this story of mine and I never imagined that we'd get this far with it! 
> 
> And would you believe me if I said that I've been writing Eclipse for a year and been working with her idea for longer than that and I'm still not completely sure of how to write her? I know there's lots of inconsistencies, but they will be fixed! eventually. Especially with chapter 9. Edits will be made, but not right now because if I start editing and all that, I'll get frustrated and lost motivation to write.
> 
> Anyways, enough from me. Hope you all enjoyed it and I can't wait to see you in the next chapter!


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